Laying the table

This experiment focused in the idea of enabling. As procedural memory (the memory that deals with tasks and how to do things) is affected, simple tasks like laying the table can become quite complex. As a former housewife, my grandmother was always very keen on helping at home. Lately, she is not able to do it anymore. She still asks all the time if we need help but then she gets confused when she’s not able to do it. A simple tablecloth with the silhouettes of the cutlery and crockery was created to see if it’s useful for helping her laying the table.
The tablecloth was on the table previously with the plates and cutlery on the middle. My grandmother Rita was asked to help laying the table. We made her notice the drawings on the tablecloth and explained her to follow those. She understood and the experiment was successful, making her more confident when performing the task, contributing to self-empowerment.

Family game v2.0

A second iteration of the family card game was developed, taking into account the previous testing. The cards and type were made bigger, no use of colour or patterns. Instead, a small description about the person on the card was added, as well as a question regarding kinship that would redirect her to another person. The pictures used were all close-ups where the face of the person is clearly visible. It was again tested with my grandmother. She engaged with the game, being able to recognize the people in the cards more easily, even if not always. She was interested in reading the small sentences about the people in the cards. Although she would get lost with the questions, if no one were helping her, when looking for the answer in the other cards. It revealed to be helpful to my family to enhance conversation with my grandmother, but she can also look at it and maintain interest for some time on her own.

A template will be produced so that other people can use and modify according to their loved one, deciding what is more appropriate. It doesn’t have to be the people of the family, but maybe places, or objects – building a set of cards that are meaningful to them. They also allow different ways and levels of interaction.
The cards work as cue to remind people with AD of memories they have more difficulty to remember. Although it won’t bring their memory back, it was thought to be a good exercise and an easy help for my family to stimulate the person with AD.

Family book

The same idea of facilitating communication and conversation about the people from the family was adapted to my grandfather. He very passive at the moment and it is very difficult to communicate with him. He often doesn’t show interest, or just answers yes or no. Although not very common in people with Alzheimer’s, he still reads a lot. We can’t understand he really makes sense of what he reads or if he just follows the words. I wonder if we can communicate to him through this medium that he still really enjoys. I asked everyone in the closer family to write him a letter, introducing themselves and telling him a memory or something they did or used to do together and anything else they would like to share with him. These were compiled to make a book, highlighting names, words that can trigger some memories of my grandfather. Considerations about type size, the format of the book and subtle colour indications of who is writing were applied.
(not tested yet)

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms?

The next 5 posts show a group of experiments that seek to represent graphically some of the symptoms felt by people with dementia.

Two of my grandparents are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore this project is based in my direct experience and observation of the progressive weakening of their cognitive functions.

My aim is to communicate dementia in a different way, trying to give the audience some insight on those symptoms in order to raise awareness about the disease.

This project was shown at the Work in Progress exhibition, 7-10 February at Central Saint Martins.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 1

DISORIENTATION MAP

This map is a metaphor to convey the constant feeling of disorientation that people with dementia usually experience.

My grandparents are not able to identify most of the places that used to be part of their daily life. If they remember some of those familiar places they cannot recall the way to get there, even if they used to do it everyday.

The place they are able to recognize most is their home. Everything revolves around it. Therefore I used the house as the centre of rotation for the different layers. Each colour represents a forgotten regular route or a special place that they cannot remember anymore. The places that are most present in their memories have the smallest degree of rotation/disorientation.


Experiment done with the Central London bus map from TfL.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 2

THE BOOK OF GENESIS ACCORDING TO MY GRANDFATHER

Vasco Branco is my grandfather, living with Alzheimer’s disease for more than 10 years. I used the Book of Genesis, a reference to him and to many, to represent the progressive state of confusion that he lives in everyday.

I identified 4 types of confusion: about objects, people, places and time. These are expressed by 4 types of typographic changes in the text of the Book of Genesis.

Besides my grandfather, my grandmother suffers from the same disease. I used examples and episodes I experienced with them in order to create this book.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms?

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 1

This set of three books form a project in which I explore how memory loss could affect book narrative.

With Playback I explored the symptom of repetition, associated with the fact that people affected with Alzheimer’s disease often lose their short-term memory.
Although diagnosed for many years my grandfather still reads a lot. However whenever he stops reading he has trouble remembering his place. So he always starts from the beginning, and never reaches the end of the book.


Experiment developed with 2nd hand book Playback by Raymond Chandler, 1965, Penguin Books.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 4

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 2

The book Digging up the Past reflects on how memory is affected by Alzheimer’s disease. In the early stages it starts to have an effect on short-term memory, leaving past memories intact. However, with the progression of the disease, semantic memory (the meaning of things), procedural memory (how to do things) and past memories can also be affected.

In advanced stages, it seems as though the disease keeps “digging” at their memories, their identity, until they are almost empty.


Experiment developed with 2nd hand book Digging up the Past by Sir Leonard Woolley, 1954, Penguin Books.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 5

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 3
A Delicate Balance is a play about a family and their friends. I chose one of the characters to have Alzheimer’s disease: Tobias, the father of the family. He progressively forgets the other characters, starting with his friends, his sister-in-law, then his daughter. By the end of the book he is only able to recognize himself, and, from time to time, his wife.

Each of the three acts in the play represents one of the three stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

In the early stage / act 1, Tobias can always recognize Agnes. Sometimes he forgets Julia (daughter) and Claire (sister-in-law) and, more often, his friends, Harry and Edna.

In the moderate stage / act 2, Tobias still knows Agnes most of the time; he recognizes Claire and Julia just a few times and Edna and Harry only once or twice. When a character speaks for a long time he also tunes out.

In severe stage / act 3, Tobias cannot follow more than 3 or 4 lines of speech. He is also unable to keep a conversation going. He is starting to have some difficulty recognizing Agnes. The other characters are not there anymore.
Experiment developed with 2nd hand book A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, 1969, Penguin Books.

Family game

Last week I called my grandma. She didn’t know who was talking; she didn’t remember she had granddaughters. Even after I told her, she couldn’t understand how I was related to her. She usually mistakes the people of our family (we are just 7), she quite often forgets about one daughter or the other; or who is the mother of her granddaughters or who is married to who.

I thought I could make her a family tree. She could find who is who and how we are related. I was thinking to make it interactive so she could “play” with the help of the carer, as we don’t live near her.

This game is ought to stimulate the conversation and recognition of relatives by the positioning of the cards regarding kinship.

Directions for playing the game:

Every card corresponds to each relative. All people generations are represented by colours and patterns and the mixing of them. Therefore, the oldest generation just have one colour, and the younger ones are the combination of colours from the oldest ones.

The symbols represent the relations between the same generation: brothers/sisters, wife/husband.

Those should be sticked before starting to play.

Also, names of relatives and matching kinship should be written in the labels and placed in the back of the card.

Testing:

It’s the birthday of my grandmother. 90 years old.

I gave her the ‘Family Game’ experience as birthday present.

When I hand it to her, she couldn’t read what was written in the box. I was not sure if it was my writting, if it wans’t big enough, or if her vision was not well.

Once she took out the cards with the pictures, she was happy. I guess she recongized herself and she liked her picture. And she was happy to have the pictures of everyone else. I started to quickly explain her the point of the game. She just told me “Oh my dear, this seems very complicated. But I was never good in games.”

After a few days I tried again to explain the game to my grandmother. I started by asking her help to fill the labels with name and kinship. 

She had no difficulty identifying herself and my grandfather. Then she couldn’t recognize anyone.

I gave her the cards of my mother and aunt. She asked to my grandfather and he told him straight away that those were their daughters, Carminho e Zezinha. Still, my grandmother couldn’t see it.

I called my mother and aunt. I asked her who they were. At first, she couldn’t say their names, but after insisting a bit she recognized them. I gave her the cards again, but she said the ones in the cards were not the ones in front of her (the pictures are recent, maybe 1, max 2 years old). I didn’t know if it was the size of the picture or the printing quality, if it was the bad vision of my grandmother, or the patterns in the background that made her confused.

I insisted. She realised before (with her card and my grandfather’s) that I was writing the names and kinship in the back of the card. She kept moving the cards around when I insisted to see if the answer was in the back.

I finally gave up of having her confirmation and wrote the names of my mother and aunt in the labels and I asked her if she agreed. She didn’t seem very convinced. 

The same happened regarding my uncle, myself and my sister. She couldn’t recognise anyone, even if we were to make the comparison between us and the picture.

Finally, I wrote all the names and all kinship relations. I also stick the brother/sister and married symbols, but I was not very sure of that as well. It makes it even more confusing. 

Dinner was ready. I was disappointed and exhausted. My sister too. And I guess my grandmother as well.

I don’t know if just the picture and names/kinship in the back is easier for her. Without giving any “tip” regarding the relations between people. I am not sure if the graphics are more complicated rather than helping.

I asked my sister to write how she felt and to make comments on the game:

“When we were playing with Granny, it wasn’t working. I was feeling a bit desperate, irritated, since she gave me the right answer and after a little while she was already saying a wrong one. It’s a shame. Her face seemed so confused and also irritated with herself as she couldn’t remember or couldn’t keep up with what we were asking her.”

“I think the cards should have just one bigger photo of the face, maybe without the patterns, because grandma could indentify anyone. Maybe you can put the patterns just in the back.

But I like the idea. If someone played that with her everyday, maybe she could get better. Or at least, just for exercising the brain.”

Mapping Dementia 1

This experiment is an attempt to map what is dementia and its impact in the world.

The diagram puts together what is typically part of getting older and the most common symptoms experienced by people with dementia and relates them to the main types of diseases that cause dementia. Not all the patients have the same symptoms and all of them are felt and progress in different ways. The design is based on a tube map to transmit this idea: people may or may not feel or pass through these symptoms.

Poster presented at the exhibition Related/Unrelated at Central Saint Martins, Back Hill. 25-30 March 2011

Open publication - Free publishing - More dementia

Mapping Dementia 2

In the pie chart, the concern was to include the uncertainty of data. The numbers regarding different forms dementia are not clear. Sometimes is difficult to distinguish them and the mixture of two diseases is frequent.

Mapping Dementia 3

The aim here was to ‘translate’ those big numbers into something more evident and thus more understandable. As a result, the number of people with dementia is compared to population of London and UK and the cost of dementia is compared to big or familiar companies’ revenue.

The whole Viva presentation of the project can be seen here:

Open publication - Free publishing - More dementia