Can communication design add value to the context of Alzheimer's disease?

This paper reflects on Alzheimer’s disease from a communication design point of view. Using a personal and phenomenological approach, the research investigates different ways in which communication design can be applied to the context of Alzheimer’s disease. In an iterative process between practice and research, visual outcomes were produced specifically looking at raising awareness and understanding of the disease and facilitating interaction between people with Alzheimer’s disease and their carers and families. These provided the basis for reflection on considerations to be taken into account in communication design for Alzheimer’s disease.

MA Communication Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
May 2012

 

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)

Ping Pong

Very touching and interesting documentary about ageing well.

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.