Enhancing quality in conversations and visitor engagement in dementia care environments

SMILE is a tool for seniors with dementia, who are living in a closed living environment, to capture and review who recently visited them. The senior can take a picture or a video with a visitor or caregiver. The photo or video is automatically send to the photo frame inside the personal room of the senior. SMILE has been shaped through iterative design. The evaluation of SMILE showed that it may offer value to the senior, the visitor and the caregiver. SMILE creates moments of joy. Furthermore, the displayed pictures trigger new personal conversations. Visitors were happily surprised to see who visited the senior. Another advantage is that the act of taking a picture and reviewing a picture creates a shared and accessible activity. The caregiver also valued the product as SMILE provides pleasure during work and informs about the social environment of the senior. Therefore, SMILE seems a promising design intervention to make care more person-focused.

Video of envisioned design proposal.

Video of demonstrator that has been evaluated.