Asking users directly is the best way to find out which designs work best. But when that is not feasible, perhaps personas can help. That’s the claim by a group of researchers who want to help architects and designers to create meaningful public places and spaces inclusive of people with dementia. The process of developing personas proved to be complex and difficult. This is not surprising because dementia affects different people in different ways. The full chapter is via Springer and requires institutional access for a free read. However, it’s possible to get a copy via the ResearchGate route.
The title of the paper is, Developing Dementia Personas for User Centered Architectural Design Considerations in Non-specialized Contexts.
From the abstract:
We have developed a dementia persona as a research and design tool to help architects and designers. Architects design spaces for specific functions, but rarely for people with dementia.
Personas are used because people with dementia are dependent on caregivers and ethical clearance is difficult to achieve.
The process of developing dementia personas posed many challenges. Iterative revisions were made to make the personas relatable and concrete for a successful design tool. The complex context of the case requires more personas to represent the diversity of persons with dementia in the service provision on different levels and this is the start of the persona development process.