LivingMoments: Bespoke Social Communication for People living with Dementia and their Relatives

Dementia can hinder a person's ability to engage with their relatives. Existing communication technologies do not support people with dementia in maintaining social contact since they are not designed for their abilities and needs. This paper presents LivingMoments, a communication system that enables the engagement of people with dementia with their relatives. The system uses digital and physical interaction design considering people's different and changing abilities. Over a six-week field evaluation of LivingMoments, involving six participants living at home with different levels of dementia, we collected qualitative and quantitative data about the experiences of them and their relatives. Based on the data analysis, we found the need to adapt communication to individual abilities, lowering barriers through content calibration and establishing habits for continuous use. We evinced a set of design considerations for technologies to support a lasting engagement of people with dementia with different and changing abilities.