Interviewees
Design Objective
Help to provide
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Instant support for family caregivers of elderly with dementia
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A better caring relationship between them
Target Population
All caregivers from the family member responsible for taking care of the elderly diagnosed with dementia.
​User 1
​User 2
​User 3
​User 4
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6 target users from 4 families
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1 stakeholder from a professional perspective
​mother in law
​mother
​mother in law
​father in law
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7 years
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Care by turns
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7 years
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Care with husband and helper by turns
​father in law
​User 5
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3 years
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Care with husband and helper by turns
​father
​User 6
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20 years
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Care with helper by turns
​User 7
Interviewees
Stakeholder Head nurse
​mother
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​Working at 24-hour caring institution
Themes of interview questions
＊Follow-up not included
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Could you please tell us about the elderly’s situation?
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Since when did you start taking care of him/her? Why did your family decide to caregivers on your own?
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Do you take care of him/her alone? If not, how do you take turns?
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Can you describe the daily caring process for us? How much time do you spend on caregiving on average?
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Have you encountered any difficulty? In what ways do you deal with it?
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Have you used any external resources? If yes, what and how? If no, why not?
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Are there other interactions other than basic care between you and the elderly? How did these interactions affect?
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How do you release your pressure of caring?
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During this whole caring period, what impressed you the most?
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If we can do something for caregivers in dementia long-term caring, what are your expectations?
Data Analysis Method - Affinity Diagram
1. The emphasis of early to late stage caring differs. But communication is the hardest part.
2. I try to slow down the elderly’s degradation by providing physical, mental, brain, and social stimulations.
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During the first stage of dementia, what I mostly do is to restrain the elderly’s behavior. In the middle stage, I have to assist all basic self-cares such as eating and toilet. In the later stage, their energy drop dramatically and spend most time sleeping.
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The elderly’s original personality is usually reinforced. Some will have illusions or aggressive behaviors, I have to limit their activities and create a safe environment.
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Communication is the hardest part. Conflicts occur easily when the elderly doesn’t understand why I’m forcing them to do sth.
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Physical care: Taking the elderly out on a walk or patting them to activate their muscles.
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Mental care: Taking the elderly to church, singing choral, or let them transcribe scriptures for the seeking of internal peace.
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Brain activities: Let the elderly do what they enjoyed doing in the past, such as drawing, writing and papercutting. Or let them play toys and childhood games.
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Social activities: Hanging out and joining friend gatherings.
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The caretaking requires 24-hour time and effort. I wish there’s someone to take turns, but it’s expensive to send them to day-care agency or hire foreign workers, I’m also worried about how they will treat the elderly.
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I talk to friends with relevant experience or seek information through the Internet, books, and media. However, there are many restrictions on the policy. The cost is also a huge burden.
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I hope to learn more health and caring skills, and join a supporting group.
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The caring process is full of chronic but overwhelming stress, not only from the elderly, but also from loss of our own lives, external social stereotypes, and internal family imbalance.
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I try to adjust myself by keeping hobbies and part of my own life, talking to friends, or turning for religious consolation.
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Reminding myself of the precious and memorable moments with the elderly is a motivation (e.g. Thinking of her raising me up, watching him so focused on drawing )
4. It’s hard for me to seek external assistance and
I have doubts.
3. I try to relieve the stress by seeking for the meaning of caring and maintaining part of my own life.
Key Findings
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Harmonious interactions from exercise provide the elderly with pleasures and spiritual support for the caregivers.
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Most of the family caregivers tend to activate the elderly’s brain by accompanying them to exercise and do what they were good at or like to do before.
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All family caregivers pay 24-hour and non- stop attention from day to day to know the elderly’s body and safety cindition.
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Interaction and communication with the elderly are the most difficult parts for family caregivers.
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Professional caregivers use skills such as attention shifting or obeying first then wait for the elderly to forget.
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Due to legislation restrictions and concerns about external care, it isn’t easy for family caregivers to receive external assisting resources.
Design Directions
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Interaction and communication with the elderly are the most difficult parts for family caregivers.
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Family caregivers pay 24-hour attention and suffer from constant pressure from day to day to always keep track of the elderly’s body and safety condition.
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Most of the family caregivers tend to activate the elderly’s brain by accompanying them to exercise and do what they were good at or liked to do before. The harmonious moments provide the elderly with pleasure and spiritual support for caregivers.
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Many family caregivers use skills such as attention shifting or obeying first then wait for the elderly to forget.
How do we create affinity diagram
Affinity Diagram
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Preparing:​ ​Separate the interview data into notes. One note contains one idea.
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Grouping:​ ​After shuffling notes, each member reads one note and sticks to the poster according to the relation.
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Labeling: Add green labels to include the following notes and write green labels in a first person, active voice.​​
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Identifying themes: Add pink labels to contain green labels to high-level themes, and identify key findings.
Key Findings
Design Directions
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Provide caregivers with real-time feedback on the elderly’s emotional and physiological status in caring. Although the elderly gradually loses cognitive ability for communication, caregivers can still understand their feelings and take suitable care.
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Help caregivers keep track of the elderly’ location and safety condition when they are out-of-sight. Let caregivers have some own time to release from the caring pressure but still control the elderly's safety.
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Encourage exercise and facilitate interactions between caregivers and the elderly to provide agreeable interactions and spiritual support for caregivers.
Since our goal is to provide instant support to reduce the caring burden and stimulate better caring relationship,
we decided to focus on three of our key findings and identify our design directions.