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