Designing information for families caring for people with dementia
- Submitting institution
-
The University of Reading
: B - Typography and Graphic Communication
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory : B - Typography and Graphic Communication
- Output identifier
- 79523
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/24735132.2019.1629766
- Title of journal
- Design for Health
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 199
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2473-5132
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- July
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
3
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The paper reports a design-led collaboration with healthcare professionals and family carers in the Berkshire Healthcare Trust to develop information packs for carers of people with dementia. The aims were multiple:
– to make a practical contribution by improving the Healthcare Trust’s information provision for this complex condition
– to demonstrate to a healthcare audience the effectiveness of design-led and user-centred information development (in contrast to traditional clinician-to-patient provision of content with little consideration of the impact of form on uptake and use)
– to provide a case study of information design methods for the design-for-healthcare and wider design communities.
The study is distinctive in its coverage of the scope of information design: from language and detailed typography to the organisation and design of the overall artefact as a living document with potential for continuous reading or navigation for reference, and which could be customised, annotated and updated by its users. Data collection from inception and throughout the project supported monitoring the fit of the design solutions considered and adopted to users’ needs, and to the practical and social context of use; for example whether a proposed solution would encourage recipient carers to share the information with other family members (with the potential benefit of spreading understanding and, hence, support for an individual with dementia). Combining a user-centred design approach with data collection, enabled a ‘before and after’ trial demonstrated both the effectiveness of the designed product, and also the locus of that effect i.e. that it improved carer understanding of dementia as a condition, but not their confidence in their ability to care. This enabled us to draw realistic conclusions about the role such documents can play in care settings and give an informed assessment of the potential return on investment of an intervention such as ours.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -