Design for Understanding Project
The Alzhiemer’s Activity Pack is a collection of activity cards designed for families with young children to use when spending time with a loved one who may have Alzheimer’s Disease or any other form of dementia. The activities are intended to be engaging, meaningful, and safe for both a young and elderly audience, but can be enjoyed by all ages.
Tools:
Illustrator
Photoshop
InDesign
Illustrator
Photoshop
InDesign
Background
I was inspired to create this project from my own experiences spending time with my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s Disease. There comes a point when the disease progresses too much when a family might not want their children spending time with a loved one with Alzheimer’s. The activities I decided on in this pack are designed for mild-moderate stages of the disease where social, mental, and physical functioning are not yet completely lost. This is why the cards are designed and encouraged to be personalized and modified to level of functioning. Activities are not proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, but they do improve the quality of life.
I was inspired to create this project from my own experiences spending time with my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s Disease. There comes a point when the disease progresses too much when a family might not want their children spending time with a loved one with Alzheimer’s. The activities I decided on in this pack are designed for mild-moderate stages of the disease where social, mental, and physical functioning are not yet completely lost. This is why the cards are designed and encouraged to be personalized and modified to level of functioning. Activities are not proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, but they do improve the quality of life.
Research
The majority of my research on the disease and memory care for seniors came from informational sources like Alz.org, Alzheimers.net, AARP, and AgingCare.com. The research that gave me the most insight into my target audiences came from comment sections on AgingCare.com as well as from posts on a Facebook private group I joined called Alzheimer’s Activity Zone. I compiled my activity ideas into a database in order to start grouping them by genre. This led me to decide on the organization by action: PLAY, MAKE, MOVE, and SENSE.
User Testing
Because this course was taught online due to quarantine and social distancing restrictions, I resorted to using my immediate family for most of my user testing, along with some virtual testing done via messaging.
This brainstorm map was used to ask my family which three characteristics they thought were most important to describe the kinds of activities in my pack. The most common answers were: calming, safe, past interests, and stimulating.
This brainstorm map was used to ask my family which three characteristics they thought were most important to describe the kinds of activities in my pack. The most common answers were: calming, safe, past interests, and stimulating.
Color association testing, in order from left to right:
1. I sent a grid of numbered colors to friends and family and asked them to pick one color they associate with the word PLAY, MAKE, MOVE, and SENSE.
2. The results of the color test were all over the place as everyone had different personal associations. There were only a few suble color trends like warm yellows and oranges for PLAY and cool blues for SENSE that I used to inspire my color scheme choices.
3. Possible color schemes I tested on my classmates.
1. I sent a grid of numbered colors to friends and family and asked them to pick one color they associate with the word PLAY, MAKE, MOVE, and SENSE.
2. The results of the color test were all over the place as everyone had different personal associations. There were only a few suble color trends like warm yellows and oranges for PLAY and cool blues for SENSE that I used to inspire my color scheme choices.
3. Possible color schemes I tested on my classmates.
Prototyping Process
Prototype Sketches
Digital Prototyping
Test Prints
Final Prototype
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