Nutzerwelten
As part of a funding scheme “FH Struktur” of the Northrhine-Westphalian government a research program was set up at in 2014 our university to design digital media for people with dementia combining knowledge from design, media informatics, electrical engineering and social sciences. Motivated by the lack of medical treatment and caregiver resources and the resulting importance of psycho-social interventions, we saw much potential in the design of digital media and interactive objects that embody digital media, for instance, for reminiscence, sensory stimulation or communication of people with dementia.
Within the Nutzerwelten Research Program we have worked on several projects, among those (1) on interactive objects that use digital media to trigger memories (see Huldtgren et al., 2017); (2) the Chrono TV app which allows caregivers of people with dementia to browse through general and personalized media from the past (photos, videos, text, music); (3) InsideDem – a BMBF funded project on an app to support informal caregivers of people with dementia that show challenging behaviors such as aggression and apathy.
In these projects we work with several institutes and organizations in the care domain, such as the DZNE – german centre for neurodegenerative diseases, the Dementia Service Centre, Alzheimer Initiative, and local carehomes of the Diakonie and Caritas.