On Friday the 30th of Octobe 2009 I passed the CIID pilot Year exam. This means that I will be changing this blog putting more emphasis on the function of display for my designs and professional life.

The exam itself was a very good experience and I would like to thank Anna Kirah from CPH Design, Mikal Hallstrup from Designit, Joachim Halse from The Danish Design School and Simona Maschi from CIID for a highly useful, professional and challenging feedback. The project is still very much alive and I hope to continue it at a later date.

Starting from January 1.st. I have been employed as an Interaction and Service Designer at CIID (http://ciid.dk/consultancy) where I primarily will be working on a project with Erhvervs – og Byggestyrelsen creating a design process teaching User-centered Design to manufacturers of assistive technology and companies producing lifestyle products.

More information about CIID can be found here: http://ciid.dk/

Getting started again offered little difficulty. The research venue had been most sympathetic to the postponements I had to make and they where very open to me returning to the nursing centre. I will by agreement to them keep the facility unnamed and will not be publishing any names of the people I interview either.

I started out by doing observations around the venue to get a feel of how a day was put together. A day could pass like this:

Getting up between 8-10 am depending on the level of physical autonomy that the individual is in possession of. If one needs help a caregiver will come and give the required assistance. The morning awakening can take between one and five quarters of an hour depending on the mood and the physique of the person. Starting the day also means listening to any thoughts or doubts that the person might have. As depression sometimes occurs the time can be spent solely in conversation. Breakfast is served before 10 an can be eaten either in the private room or at the communal kitchen on the floor.

From 10-12 the local activity centre is offering up activities. Most participate in the communal event where coffee is served  along with a couple of slices of fruit. Different caregivers play the piano and songbooks are distributed. People join in at their level while the caregivers tend to arising needs. As half the people living in the home has dementia of some kind there is a large spectrum of capabilities and of situations that need to be handled.

After this session the inhabitants are returned to their floors where they have lunch. The activity centre opens once again at 1 pm with communal activities like movie screening, walks and different games with occasional room for activities suggested by the users of the centre. In the adjacent room a work shop is located that has a number of activities on offer. Sewing, painting, post card making, and other handicrafts can be taken on with support from the staff. Once a week a volunteer comes in and teaches basic computer usage teaching the use of the Internet, word and publisher.

At 4 pm the activity centre closes and the inhabitants returns to their floors. Dinner is served around 6 pm and bedtime for those that need assistance is 9 or 10 pm after their own choosing.

There is of course a lot of activities in between the above mentioned and the inhabitants can come and go as they please some though inhibited by mental or physical handicaps. I will be going back to the centre next week where I hopefully will experience life on a floor and if possible interview staff and inhabitants.

In the beginning of August I slowly started returning to my project. Having had a concussion and not being able to work for a couple of months has meant some changes to my plans.

First of all I have had an extension which means that I will be having my final exam on the 29. of October in The Danish Design School. The exam will be open and I will post more on the topic as I get closer to deadline.

Having the “luxury” of spending two months thinking about a project and not being able to act on it has also resulted in some changes in the sense of how I am planning the next two months – more on that will follow.

What has however been a true luxury is having the review board of the Pilot Year exam giving me feedback on my initial research. The review board consisted of Bill Moggridge (IDEO), Gillian Crampton Smith (IUAV), Mikal Hallstrup (Designit), Joachim Halse (DKDS) and Eva Brandt (DKDS). I did a 15 minute presentation of my initial findings and got 15 minutes of feedback. It was as expected relevant, sharp and challenging.

I will be spending today and tomorrow summing up on the work I have been the past three weeks publishing my thoughts and insights. I will do another post this afternoon and hopefully one or two tomorrow.

On the 6. of June I had a bicycle accident and I will be out of action for a while. I hope to be able to continue my work as soon as possible

Magnus

Having finished the last industry project of the CIID Pilot Year I am now back and ready to focus 100% on my thesis. I will spend the next couple of days exploring the different diseases leading to dementia along with the newest publication on the topic. I will begin my field research next week as I have been given the opportunity to join to activity groups at an elderly home in Copenhagen. Both groups are gender specific with activities focusing on sharing a social moment and doing specific activities. More on these will follow.

The next two weeks will be dedicated to our last project on CIID apart from the thesis. We have been given an assignment by Novo Nordisk and will be going through a quick research face, a longer concept generation face and some rapid prototyping. It looks to be a very intensive project so I will probably not get to do much work on my thesis. I hope to continue building my portfolio in the days to come but time will tell how much it will amount to.

I have however made an appointment to check back with one of the research venues in the middle of next week and hope to make the final adjustments to the schedule and finalize my user research plan.

A lot of things have been going on the last two weeks. I have been meeting with people constantly either to pitch my idea to residing/visiting faculty or two get possible stakeholders on board. Fortunately the people I have met have been interested and sympathetic towards my project. Time will tell but it seems like I have been given the possibility to follow one or more groups of elderly engaging in basic social interaction but also focused reminiscence therapy.

Building on these conversations and the furthering of the project has led me to some pre-ethnography speculation:

I am curious about…

Moving into a nursing home

What is a person that is just moving in thinking about?

Is it possible to make any overall speculations about was prompted the move into the home?

How is the level of capability both mentally and physically diagnosed?

What makes a person allegeable to therapy?

Motivation

Is it possible to make any overall speculations concerning the mood of someone moving into an elderly home?

How is the motivation in the beginning/moving in?

Does it change over time?

Does participating in therapy change motivation overall?

Awareness of a diagnosed/undiagnosed condition

How aware is a person of their own disease in the different stages mild/medium/severe of dementia?

What are the symptoms of the different stages?

Initiative

How passive/active are they in combating their disease?

Do people have the relevant knowledge to fight the disease?

Medication

What kind a medication is used?

How does the elderly feel about getting medicated for their memory?

Therapy

What kind of therapy is used?

How does a reminiscence session work?

When are people to well/ill to participate in the sessions?

The surroundings

What role does:

-         family

-         age

-         gender

-         role/place in family

play in the course and the progression of the disease?

What parameters if any has baring on how rapid the disease progresses?

Doing the research

Can I meet someone who has just moved in and follow this person over a period of time?

Can I somehow get a look into the “before state”?

Can I somehow life the life of the elderly?

Can I become immersed somehow?

What is my thesis about?
My idea is to do a deep dive into the life-world of people stricken by dementia in the context of the elderly home. For this purpose I am trying to establish collaboration with two elderly homes in central Copenhagen.
I will spend the first month doing research in one of the venues, observing and conducting interviews with residents and staff – hopefully also including management and specialists. I will also investigate the disease itself and learn about the medication and therapy being offered in general.  A special area of interest is the therapy sessions focusing on reminiscence which is taking place in both venues which I hope to sit in on. I am intentionally keeping my entry very broad as I will identify areas of opportunity as I progress. I will be looking for ways to improve the life quality of the residents at the elderly homes in both interpersonal and in the systemic ways looking into the current strategies. Staff and facility is thus very much a part of the investigation and I will keep an eye out for opportunities in that part of the system as well.

Motivation
The familiar things project is to date still the project that moved me the most. In my opinion there is a lot to be done in the area of elderly care. Also, slowly losing your cognitive abilities and thus your identity and dignity has to be one of the worst ways to pass away. The emotional consequences for the next of kind and the impact of the diseases on society financially are also meriting a closer look at the area.

My personal and overall goal is
The elderly represent a growing part of the Danish populace that in my opinion is marginalized and not sufficiently researched or funded. Our investigations in the GUI project showed that a lot of steps could be taken to improve their daily lives in the elderly homes. My goal is to identify the needs of the person/patient stricken with dementia and to look into the ways of improving or changing current state.

Domain and boundaries
The domain of the elderly home is a defined one. I have set this boundary in order to have a starting point. As the project progresses it could very likely be a good idea to look at elderly people to learn more about life as an elderly without the need for facility care.

During my thesis I would like to challenge myself in
I would like to challenge myself in areas such as graphic design and visualisation. I intend to work with different ways of presenting my data and communicating my ideas using tools such as video prototyping and posters. I will work with GUI where it makes sense. I will further challenge myself into the topics that I am more comfortable with such as ethnography and concept development trying to go as broad as I can before narrowing my focus. If the thesis takes me into product/GUI design I will also be looking into flash programming.

Adviser
Vinay Venkatraman

What are the consequences of doing a deep dive in the area of Dementia  in a the context of the elderly home?
To me doing Interaction design is a very personal thing. I naturally use myself as a platform for the research and the designs that I do. This means getting involved and connecting to the person(s) whose world I am trying to understand without the distance of the anthropologist or psychologist. Through observation and/or conversation I encourage the person to tell me about their world but hopefully also allowing me to participate in it. An interview can be a great way to learn bout a field but supplementing it with observation rules out the say/do problem; saying that you do something does not necessarily mean that you actually do it.

Working with Dementia also means that peoples needs presumable will change drastically during the course of the disease. I need to understand the disease in order to avoid developing a solution that is not corresponding to the abilities present at the time the need arises. This could very well prove to be to difficult a task to succeed in 4 months but being aware of it will help in the case of user testing or if I choose to do co creation session.

I want my thesis to …
I want my thesis to be an exploration into a topic that will increase my knowledge of service and product design. What motivates me is if the user of the service or product is one that is
In someway in need of my work and as a group could be short of resources.
My thesis should give me a reference point from which I can start work life as an employee or intern. I want my thesis to be well documented and showcase my skills into the discipline of Interaction Design along with my personal interests and drive.

I’m interested in/inspired by…
The area of eldercare represents a growing part of the Danish populace that in my opinion is marginalized and under funded. Our investigations showed that a lot of steps could be made to improve the daily lives in the elderly homes.
My thesis will take its starting point in an investigation into the life of the elderly stricken with dementia or Alzheimer’s. What is the current treatment that is offered to these people? What is the official strategy to battle this decease and preserve quality of life for those stricken? My goal is to identify the needs of the person/patient and to look into the ways of which more could be done.
Two possible topics:
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