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Innovative digital service
to ease dementia care

6 weeks, 2019
By developing a mood tracker phone application and a mobile and desktop platform, this service design project aimed to make life easier for elderly that take care of their dement partner at home. This project was undertaken in collaboration between Malmö University and Innovation Skåne that aims to implement the government target of “Close Care” by finding innovative digital health care solutions by employing service design.

My Role: Design Research Design Research Ideation and Conceptualization App Prototyping
Design Research
During an intensive field research phase much time was spend on the ground with interviewing and observing care-taking relatives, the municipal caretaker as well as volunteers working with relatives. This served to empathize with the users, identify design opportunities and understand the specific needs of care-taking relatives. By co-designing with relatives in a small municipality in Southern Sweden it became clear that the need for personal psychological support from the municipal support service is fundamental in the well-being of relatives, a need that is supported by the design solution. A co-design workshop as well as a range of service design methods were deployed to gather and structure insights and problems, that then lead the ideation process.
Ideation Process
By co-designing with relatives and stakeholders it became clear that the need for personal psychological support from the municipal support service is fundamental in the well-being of relatives. The ideation process evolved around how to make such support continuously available in a digital way to accomodate the needs of care takers. Capacities for psychological support are limited by the municipality but the needs are immense. The digital solution may serve as a way to address that need while also enabling the caretaker itself to observe personal situation by taking daily notes around their psychological state of mind.
Reflections
Co-designing and working closely with caretakers in the field, important insights were gathered and empathy build up that informed the design decision and ensured the different needs were accounted for. A major challenge had been developing a digital communication tool for elderly users that clearly voice their dislike of technology. This challenge has been tackled by creating a simple UI but also considering a personal onboarding. I believe if there is a clear advantage and need for using a digital communication tool, elderly people will use it.
Methods
Participants Observations
Semi-structured interviews
Co-Design Workshop
Stakeholder Map
User Journey Map
Service Blueprint
Personas
Tools
Sketching
Wireframing with Adobe XD
User Testing
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