Now that I have come to the end of the discovery phase of this project, I want to properly define what the design phase of this project will aim to achieve.
This part of the project will be aimed at designing interactions to assist people living with dementia going about their day at home, using smart home environments for tracking and monitoring as well as advanced AR interfacing technology through glasses, lenses, or holographic projectors to present the users with information. These interactions will focus on only assisting the user when necessary, thus maintaining independence and promoting brain training exercises that can benefit those with dementia.
The scope for this part of the project will be limited to the “typical day” flow researched during User Journey Planning due to the possible massive scale of such a project due to the aim being to assist with any activity in daily life. The aim of this part of the project is to demonstrate how the interactive elements “could” be used, rather than showing a comprehensive product with every possible interaction as this would require an extended period of constant user testing, feedback, and iteration which isn’t possible for this project.
The delivery for this part of the project will be a demonstrative video filmed from 1st person to demonstrate how the interactive elements would function for the user. This will be accomplished through a blend of Figma for design prototyping and After Effects for video editing.
This part of the project will be aimed at designing a mobile-based app to provide monitoring and tracking data taken from the smart home in a digestible and user-friendly way to the carers of people with dementia, with the larger goal being for this to provide emotional support for the carer by alleviating the stress of having to leave their loved ones for periods of time. This app will utilise AI technology to track the person with dementia’s habits and patterns to help the carer contextualise the information they are being presented with, as well as anticipate arising issues that could happen based on their habits. The app will also provide additional support helping users connect to third-party resources, support groups, and other areas of help.
The delivery for this part of the project will be a Figma prototype of the app demonstrating the key features of the product.
A brand will be created to link the two parts of the product together and will be presented through a brand guideline document. Additional deliverables may be created if needed, such as a component library, design system, and product presentation.
With what I wanted to accomplish in the design phase now properly established, I could now move into the design phase of the project.