Hey Guys,
I am a Product Design student at Robert Gordon University currently working on my final year project. The subject area I have chosen is dementia care, as I have been told on separate occasions by different dementia carers and nurses that not enough products are available on the market that engage the user into a more social setting, so I aim to address this in my research and development. I am only at the initial stages of my project, but have already began prototyping methods to make current available solutions even better. I have made a prototype entitled the “House of Memories”. The idea here was to combine two existing products in a manner that improves the positive aspects of them while also getting rid of some of the negative. The images can be found here: imgur .com/a/lsbWx
I focused on the lockbox as this is a popular product that engages users on a sensory level and keeps them engaged, however the issues I identified with this were that its quite insular, leading to very little interaction with others during its use, and also that it was unrewarding due to the locks all either leading to the same interior or in some cases nothing at all.
I decided to enclose reminiscence cards under each of the doors. These are another popular product that can boost social interaction, but from speaking with nurses the success of these types of products are quite particular, as it can be difficult to engage the user’s attention and entire sessions can go by where no memories are recounted by them.
By combining the tactile locks with the rewarding memory cards, the users brain is wired to engage with the lock so that when the image is revealed, the user is more likely to recount the memory as they are already in a cognitive mindset. Colours were also used for the different doors so that memory games could be utilised during it’s use, and user’s will grow to associate certain colours with different sets of memories with time.
I am looking to receive any feedback at all on this design, any improvements suggested will be greatly considered and I will take any criticism on board. This is an initial design for a world I am still a little unfamiliar with so I would actually like feedback to be as critical as possible, this is just a prototype so I’m not attached enough to it to take anything to heart! If anyone wishes to contact me with further information or suggestions, drop me a message and I’ll be more than happy to communicate in whatever manner suits you. I am doing this project for an entire year so will be looking to gather as many contacts as possible!
Regards, Douglas
I am a Product Design student at Robert Gordon University currently working on my final year project. The subject area I have chosen is dementia care, as I have been told on separate occasions by different dementia carers and nurses that not enough products are available on the market that engage the user into a more social setting, so I aim to address this in my research and development. I am only at the initial stages of my project, but have already began prototyping methods to make current available solutions even better. I have made a prototype entitled the “House of Memories”. The idea here was to combine two existing products in a manner that improves the positive aspects of them while also getting rid of some of the negative. The images can be found here: imgur .com/a/lsbWx
I focused on the lockbox as this is a popular product that engages users on a sensory level and keeps them engaged, however the issues I identified with this were that its quite insular, leading to very little interaction with others during its use, and also that it was unrewarding due to the locks all either leading to the same interior or in some cases nothing at all.
I decided to enclose reminiscence cards under each of the doors. These are another popular product that can boost social interaction, but from speaking with nurses the success of these types of products are quite particular, as it can be difficult to engage the user’s attention and entire sessions can go by where no memories are recounted by them.
By combining the tactile locks with the rewarding memory cards, the users brain is wired to engage with the lock so that when the image is revealed, the user is more likely to recount the memory as they are already in a cognitive mindset. Colours were also used for the different doors so that memory games could be utilised during it’s use, and user’s will grow to associate certain colours with different sets of memories with time.
I am looking to receive any feedback at all on this design, any improvements suggested will be greatly considered and I will take any criticism on board. This is an initial design for a world I am still a little unfamiliar with so I would actually like feedback to be as critical as possible, this is just a prototype so I’m not attached enough to it to take anything to heart! If anyone wishes to contact me with further information or suggestions, drop me a message and I’ll be more than happy to communicate in whatever manner suits you. I am doing this project for an entire year so will be looking to gather as many contacts as possible!
Regards, Douglas