The Fidget Widget Toolkit: Designing for positive connections in people living with dementia
- Submitting institution
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University of Central Lancashire
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 18307
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- UK
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- August
- Year of production
- 2016
- URL
-
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- 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
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This double-weighted output is the result of extensive and detailed collaborative investigations which have taken place with Alzheimer’s Society over the past decade. A rigorous approach to testing with active participants has led a process of design refinement which ultimately resulted in the creation of the Fidget WidgetTM Toolkit product. This product is now being sold across 26 countries internationally, marking the global reach and significance of the Fidget WidgetTM Toolkit. In addition to the fidget widgets themselves, Souyave developed the graphics and product packaging with a design language that compliments the toolkit, bringing a holistic sensibility to the product.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- "This output to be considered is an interactive product based on fidgeting which originated from collaborative research led by Souyave at UCLan with Judith Bower, Dementia Adviser at Alzheimer’s Society. As a design-focused researcher pursuing the value of design in wellbeing, Souyave led the design process for the Fidget WidgetTM Toolkit, which Alzheimer’s Society tested for their intervention ‘Positive Connections’.
Fidget WidgetTM Toolkit is a non-pharmaceutical design product that includes 10 different tools to fidget with. Evolved through an intense observational and reflective design methodology, each tool is designed to accommodate a specific repetitive action which aims to fulfil the needs of engagement and interaction as dementia progresses, therefore improving quality of life for the person with dementia and caregivers. This is a new and innovative approach previously untested in dementia care addressing a significant societal health issue.
Its value for people with dementia is evidenced through ‘Positive Connections’, which gathered qualitative and quantitative data from testing the toolkit individually and in small group settings. Fidget WidgetTM name is trademarked and five of the tools have been patented for licensing to Active Minds, who sell activities to improve life quality for people with dementia. Fidget WidgetTM kits continue to sell out globally, and its applications intersect society, used worldwide in care homes, hospitals, wellbeing centres and private domestic homes.
The Toolkit is not limited to people with dementia, there are potential benefits for others who ‘need’ to fidget or are agitated, and the interactive qualities equally engage those who are immobile, the elderly, people living with attention deficit disorders or those that are in stressful situations. Souyave has led the development of a set of tools more sympathetic to emotion, ergonomics, and the nature of patient physical behaviour, thus making a significant contribution in the field of design wellbeing"
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -