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A service design project designated for Alzheimer's patients, developed for the End of Life studio at Parsons School of Design.
Role | Service Designer with Alik Mikaelian and Javiera Arenas + Illustration
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Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly affects memory, thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. The memories that they tend to recollect are mostly from earlier in their life. Which makes it common for them to ask for a deceased spouse, parent or other loved ones who have passed away. They ask for them and ask for them again.
So, we designed a phone that offers access. A phone that allows you to connect with people, even those who you may no longer have access to beyond the living world.
Our design intervention invites for family mindset shifts and embrace the new normal and we aim for this to happen earlier in the timeline of the disease, so that it brings more quality time and better connections to happen beforehand.
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2017
how it works
Video by Javiera Arenas
DESIGN PROCESS
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Intentional attention - Everyday we fight stimulus and are constantly faced with a lot of information. Imagine the daily struggle patients with Alzheimer's go through having to keep up with all the social norms of being part of society. Designing spaces that allow escape and distraction from everyday pressures becomes essential.
Connecting the disconnected - Having fluid conversations are difficult when you don’t know what to say. In occasions that are too confrontational, sometimes families members end up not making time to call because they feel they are on a distant relation.
Accessing the portal to non judgemental spaces - It’s important for us to consider safe spaces for Alzheimer patients. Spaces without judgement and pressures that social stigma invites. We heard many stories where patients embrace new ways of being because this illness forces change. As designers we want to design for the new normal of their lives. Our intervention invites multiple truths, where patients can have more autonomy and access this portal where they express their feelings, thoughts and reflections to whoever they wish, in a non judgemental way and regardless what is real or not.
