Development of Assistive Technologies to Address the Needs of Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Pursuit of Independent Living

Abstract

Mild Cognitive Impairment affects significant numbers of people aged over 65. It is growing in prevalence and poses many challenges to independent living. This project examines the case of a multidisciplinary group of subject matter experts engaging graduate design students to investigate and solve specific challenges in this area. Goals included exploration of new solutions and enhanced training of the student participants. Results highlight the importance of end user involvement in development and training.

From an Individual to the Institute: A Case of ‘Multi-User Centric Codesign’ Approach in Designing Solutions for Children With Special Needs in Resource-Constraint Settings

“…Therefore, they are not only secondary users, but also proxy for the primary user. However, while direct communication between designers and users helps in a better understanding of the problem domain and facilitates the elucidation of relevant design parameters within the design process [11], the engineers and designers are not educated in "how to" mitigate such special needs circumstances. Understanding the nuances of the use case and user environment for the design of ADs beckons the involvement of users and caregivers in defining the same, in turn, aiding the designer/engineer to incorporate social, emotional, and cultural aspects of user contexts [12].…”