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Personalization and Compassionate Design

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HCI and Design in the Context of Dementia

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

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Abstract

How can designers and technologists navigate the complex ethical issues that are involved in designing for people living with dementia? How is it possible to design appropriately and with sensitivity so that a person’s dignity and sense of self can be retained even when the person can no longer remember who they are? How can successful design solutions be created when the user can no longer communicate verbally and is unable to relate to the world around them? This chapter will propose that Compassionate Design provides a useful way forward. This approach prioritizes personalization, sensory stimulation and designing to maintain connections between people and the world around them. By keeping the person living with dementia at the very heart of the design process, understanding their lived experiences and personal histories, it is possible to create appropriate, meaningful and useful solutions to assist in dementia care. Person centred and relational approaches to care provide the context for this chapter and the importance of including dementia ‘experts by experience’ in the design process is explained.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://dementiavoices.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DEEP-Guide-Language.pdf (accessed 05.05.2019).

  2. 2.

    See Hughes (2014) ‘How we think about dementia’ for further guidance on ethical issues.

  3. 3.

    https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/dementia-citizens-learning-from-a-citizen-science-platform-for-dementia-research/ acc 02.02.19.

  4. 4.

    There are many other similar apps including: Our Story; My Story; Book Creator; Story Maker; CIRCA project; Living in the moment project.

  5. 5.

    Free to download from: https://www.laughproject.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Compassionate-Design_toolkit.pdf.

  6. 6.

    LAUGH project 2015-2018 Funder by UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant ref: AH/M005607/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, Wales

    Cathy Treadaway

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  1. Cathy Treadaway
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Correspondence to Cathy Treadaway .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Technology Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Rens Brankaert

  2. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Gail Kenning

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Treadaway, C. (2020). Personalization and Compassionate Design. In: Brankaert, R., Kenning, G. (eds) HCI and Design in the Context of Dementia. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32835-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32835-1_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32834-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32835-1

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