8:8 Brainstorming

For this project we were put into groups and I worked with Larry again, Liz, and Owen to begin with.

Tab taught us the process they take when tackling a new brief. We were encouraged to use this outcome statement process for our project.

Another part of the process at Tab is to brainstorm ideas with a prioritisation grid, storyboard and test.

The first idea my group thought of was an app similar to Talking Tom to solve the problem of being bored and needing entertainment. In case you were living under a rock in 2012, (Talking Tom is an app where you take care of a domesticated cat and feed it and wash it and dress it and kill it. Maybe not the last thing but yeah it was pretty popular but also had a very annoying voice. Anyways, back to the show) I wasn't there myself so I don't have a copy of their storyboard nor testing but I was explained to that the idea was an app of a pet bunny(i think) that you would need to take care of and feed/take to the toilet/entertain etc like you would Talking Tom. I vaguely remember asking if that might be too much work for the person with dementia and might cause frustration if the bunny is always needing something.

We brainstormed new ideas as a group:

You're probably wondering what the heck any of that says so let me sum up for you while simultaneously showing off that we worked as a group for extra marks:

We all did some research and found points such as people living with dementia may have aggressive behaviour, communication problems, they might forget their train of thought, different stages have different symptoms, they want to be engaged and fulfilled, they want to be less lonely and in control, they like repetitive tasks like folding laundry, they like card games like bingo and go fish.

Some ideas we thought of were visual reminders, talking tom (but it’s a bunny), mini games app, puzzles, paint by numbers, a game where you rearrange something, something to help remind them to stay hydrated, or sleep and eat, flappy bird type game.

Again, sum up time (but give me more marks for the group screenshots pls thx):

We refined our ideas after some more discussions. We thought of making a colouring book, using AR to make a 3D puzzle and doing customisable jigsaws.

We saw this AR colouring book and was inspired:

If we go down the colouring route, we can create a colouring book that has questions about the picture or memories to help jog their memories and create discussions with the carer. These pages can have QR codes the player can scan on their phone and reveal a moving image of whatever they coloured. But this idea meant elderly dementia patients would A) would need to be extremely digitally competent B) remember what a QR code is and why it’s on the colouring page and 3) not freak out that there’s a dancing psychodelic elephant on their phone (if they even own one because otherwise this idea will not work from the get go).

We also looked at introducing sound as like with the music memory box we were shown from tab that taught us music helps recall memories.

Through research we found that puzzles can be theraputic for them, having a saved puzzle section might be helpful because they might not remember they completed it, using puzzles with adult friendly images (not porn) of landscapes and paintings compared to childish images of like a cat. And also maybe using a frame around the puzzle to help guide their gameplay. We looked at different puzzle sizes we can use depending on what stage dementia they have.

We decided on the following outcome:

As someone with dementia, I want to play a puzzle, so I can feel less bored and feel fulfilled.

As a carer I want to be able to customise puzzle pictures for the dementia patient so they can create a memorable connection.

I storyboarded what it could look like as an app:

Larry better storyboarded the app for XD:

With more research we found that having too much choice overwhelms them so having a limited number of puzzle options available such as 4 would be better. Also visually, the app should have large, coloured icons, appropriate font and font sizes friendly to the eye. And avoiding any negative features as they don't want to feel as if they failed so something with a low failure rate.

I also happen to work in a hospital but one without a dementia clinic sadly, but I did speak to some of my coworkers and one had a grandmother with dementia but she's apparently pretty much dead and doesn't even recognise herself so instead I just got given access to some boring documents available to NHS staff and the personal email of someone who manages a dementia clinic if I need to ask any questions.

We spoke to Steve the next day about our puzzle idea and he told us to refine our outcome. So we changed it to specify a connection between a relative/loved one instead of just a carer so there is a more valuable connection.

Steve also made us list things that are already being done to fix our outcome. Then use Tab's process of using a prioritisation grid. So we did those things:

We decided to still stick with jigsaw puzzles after doing this as it was the most interesting one to us and was easy to solve with high impact.

Larry converted his storyboard to XD to use for testing:

Steve then asked us to think of the specifics of our idea and think about alternatives. So me, Liz and Larry sat and made a list of exactly what the app should look like and what features and buttons it should have. We used an already existing jigsaw puzzle game app to see what features we should and shouldn't include: