Sophia Li.

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Dementially .

Your companion to dementia awareness and prevention

Figma

Dementially 

  • Category: Human Factors, User-centered Design
  • Client: The University of Toronto
  • Project date: November 2021

Prevention starts now  

The goal of this project is to increase awareness of dementia and dementia prevention strategies in post-secondary schools. The project is scoped with the goal of increasing awareness of dementia prevention strategies in community partners, specifically post-secondary schools. The target user groups are the students at post-secondary schools. This is because post-secondary students primarily begin to have more autonomy in their life choices, and may have aging family members who are at risk of developing dementia.

Become a #Dementia Ally

Dementially is an online learning platform for students and those who are seeking to learn more about dementia awareness and prevention. Designed using Figma and user-centered design heuristics, Dementially will enable students to evaluate and make crucial changes in their life habits in order to minimize their risk of developing dementia.

 

 

Technologies 

 Figma

 

Deliverables

 Rapid prototyping

 Use Cases

 User Research

 Persona Analysis 

Phase I: Understand 

User Research Methods and Results

Research Methods 

To collect initial user data, the team used three research methods: surveying potential users (the target demographic), analyzing similar websites, and studying relevant literature. The survey was the primary source of user feedback. The survey was distributed on September 19, 2021, and the team collected data until September 22, 2021. Each team member distributed the survey independently to users.

 

Target Features

 Questionnaires

 Social Media Integration

 Website Design Aesthetics

 Learning Modules

 

Data Collection Methods

Direct Observation

Surveying

Literature Review

 

Survey Results

From the responses, 75% know what dementia is and 25% have heard of it, and the 70% feel they are able to identify behaviours in dementia patients. However, 60% do not know of dementia prevention strategies or any of the suggested dementia awareness resources. In terms of lifestyle, respondents do not smoke, and 95% do not drink excessively, and 70% exercise regularly. Their typical weekdays consist of attending school, eating, completing homework and studying, with some time for leisure activities (e.g. playing video games, exercising, relaxing).

 

Literature Review 

The team conducted a review of existing literature on the knowledge of dementia and impact of early dementia prevention in college-aged and adolescent students. Research indicates that although most students are aware of dementia, a lack of formal education in schools can lead to misconceptions. A study done on 901 adolescents from South East England found that 4.3% of the group had not heard of dementia and 66.4% never had any formal education on dementia in schools. A large proportion of these participants held misconceptions. For example, only 55.5% agreed that people with dementia can be creative and 57.9% agreed that people with dementia can tell when others are kind to them. Current educational programs have been shown to be effective in increasing a student’s knowledge of dementia. Dementia knowledge measured using the Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) showed a statistically significant increase after exposure to educational programs such as Dementia Friends in college-aged students. Research also indicates that a cognitively active lifestyle can delay the onset of dementia by as much as 5 years, and a physically active lifestyle is associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline. Therefore, early implementation of these dementia prevention strategies is crucial to delaying cognitive decline later in life. The team also reviewed Canada’s National Dementia Strategy (NDS). Recommendations made by the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology indicated that part of Canada’s national dementia strategy includes public awareness campaigns promoting the Dementia Friends Canada website and implementation of the Alzheimer Society of Canada’s First Link® early intervention program.

 

User Personas

The following user personas were developed based on findings from previously conducted user research. The scenario highlights the users motivations to discover the website and their goals upon arrival.

Scenario and Use Case : Jonathan Baker

 

Scenario:

Jonathan is an undergraduate student studying teaching. Although he has never had any formal education in dementia, he has heard about it throughout his life from various forms of media such as social media and TV. After being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, he has become more conscious of his lifestyle choices and how they impact his health, and makes a consistent effort to improve his personal well-being in other areas. While doing some research online about disease prevention, he rediscovers the term dementia through an article about deadly diseases but cannot find any actionable steps that he can take from it. Through using a search engine, he comes across various different sources but finds the medium of reading long pages of text boring and unengaging. He also finds it difficult to relate to and care about the health issue as it doesn’t appear to affect him in the near future. He discovers the group’s website in the search engine results and is drawn by the keywords of ‘prevention strategies for students’. Jonathan wants to self-assess his current level of risk for developing dementia and find ways that he can prevent dementia to determine what changes he should make to his lifestyle.

 

Use Case:

From the website’s home page, Jonathan sees a dementia risk self-assessment tool. His goal is to measure his risk level based on his current habits and to find actionable prevention steps that he can take to change his life habits.

1. The user enters the website’s home page.

2. The website displays the self assessment tool as a button from the homepage.

3. The user selects the self assessment tool button.

4. The website redirects the user to the self assessment tool page.

5.The website prompts the user to enter their age.

6. The user enters their age into the text input box.

7. The website prompts the user to answer a series of multiple choice questions based on their current life habits.

8. The user answers the questions by pressing on the answer bubbles to indicate their choice.

9. The website provides the user with a number scale that indicates their level of risk and their placement on it based on their answers.

10. The website lists a series of actions that the user can take to lower their risk level.

11. The website prompts the user to enter their email to save their results.

12. The user provides their email.

13. The website confirms that an email has been sent.

14. The website provides a list of links that the user can access for further reading or research.

 

Alternative cases:

6. If the age entered is invalid:

6.1 The website highlights the box in red and displays and error message

6.2 The website prompts the user to re-enter their age in a numerical format and provides an example: “E.g., 19”

6.3 The website returns to step 5

Phase II: Rapid Prototyping 

Dementially

 

Information architechture displaying the hierarchy and navigation of the website

 

The low-fidelity wireframe prototype of the website consists of 15 pages

 

The high fidelity prototype of the website includes 50+ pages

 

Dementially 

dementia Prevention now, for the students of today

Passionate About Innovation

From multi-stage ideation to wire-frame prototyping, I am passionate about the intersection between technology and innovation and finding optimal solutions to modern day problems.

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