Autor(es): Ramalhete, Mariana ; Cysneiros, Eduarda ; Ferreira, Diana ; Quental, Joana ; Fonseca, Ivo ; Tymoshchuk, Oksana ; Ribeiro, Óscar ; Oliveira, Rita ; Sousa, Soraia Teles de ; Branco, Rita Maldonado
Data: 2025
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/44666
Origem: RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro
Assunto(s): Dementia; Meaningful activities; Co-design; Digital design
This ongoing exploratory study uses a co-design approach to actively engage people with dementia and informal caregivers in the design of a website prototype to support meaningful activities. The website is called Vamos? Atividades significativas para pessoas com demência. It can be translated to Let’s go? Meaningful activities for people with dementia. It corresponds to the third phase of the project “Design for a humanized communication of dementia: co- creation of an information platform about engaging in meaningful activities” (DECOHDE) [1,2]. Method Two of four co-design sessions were carried out with four dyads of people with dementia and informal caregivers across the span of three months (July 2024 - Oct 2024). These sessions lasted approximately one hour and were conducted face-to-face. Observation notes, video and audio recordings were collected to capture the co-design sessions, allowing a detailed examination of the participants’ collaboration. The goals of the first co-design session were to understand how the dyads searched for information and interacted with different websites (Figure 1). The participants spent most time searching about activities that they considered meaningful while using the think- aloud method. The information obtained was then used to help develop the first version of the prototype. Figure 1. First co-design session at Centro de Investigação, Diagnóstico, Formação e Acompanhamento das Demências (CIDIFAD). Figure 2. Second co-design session at Associação Alzheimer Portugal – Almeirim (AP). The goals of the second co-design session were to understand how the dyads interacted with the prototype, their thoughts on illustrated activities, and how they categorize these different activities. During the session, the participants: explored and gave feedback on the first version of the prototype (Figures 2 and 3); explored illustrated activities designed by the research team (Figure 4); and identified and distributed a set of activities through eight premade categories (Figure 5). The feedback obtained was then used to restructure and further improve the prototype. Figure 3. Homepage designed for website prototype. Figure 4. Second co-design session: Illustrated activities shown to participants. Figure 5. Second co-design session: Card Sorting Exercise with eight premade categories: Religion and Tradition; Sports and Physical Exercise; Art and Culture; Games; Daily Chores, Socializing; Nature and Outdoors; and Creative Activities. Preliminary Findings In the first co-design session we noticed participants with dementia didn’t scroll down or interacted with menus. Additionally, both people with dementia and informal caregivers had trouble interacting with filters. They expressed a clear preference for information in text and video format. In the second co-design session people with dementia and informal caregivers reported a need to have separate colors to distinguish activities at home and outside. Positive feedback was obtained for content on how to adapt activities and for illustrated activities. The third and fourth co-design sessions will be used to present updates based on feedback from the participants and to discuss ideas to further improve the prototype. Discussion will be focused on interface, illustrations, video, content and accessibility.
