FLORAISON
PERSONALIZED MAGAZINE FOR PERSON WITH DEMENTIA
Learning how participatory design can improve our understanding of designing for people with dementia
2rd Bachelor Productdesign
LUCA School Of Arts, Genk
2020 - 2021
In collaboration with
De Vierde Wand, Genk
Floraison is a personalised magazine, inspired and based on the life of A.: an attentive 84-year-old woman who is always open for a chat about dogs, flowers and her home village. She has Alzheimer's disease. Continuous texts or busy collages were deliberately avoided, as these are often overwhelming elements in current magazines or books. I aim for clues and impressions to trigger interaction, based on her interests and (mental) world. Different elements are addressed, namely: recognition, feeling of 'coming home' and her background as a travelling doctor's wife. Floraison' therefore consists of the following five chapters.
Le Jardin - The Garden
Avec Les Petites Pattes - With Little Paws - Dogs
Beauté de La Banalité - Everyday Things From the Past
Des Fleurs - Flowers
Chez Le Monde - In the World - Places Where She Lived
The pages are filled with pictures, illustrations, words and proverbs that correspond to each chapter. A. likes to emphasise that she speaks French, a language she used to learn at school. The fact that she still speaks it, gives her a sense of pride. I capitalise on this by making the book French-Dutch. She likes to read aloud, but continuous texts are difficult. That is why the booklet only contains short, well-known sayings, in line with each theme.
The personal contact with the person with dementia was key within this project. Through participatory design, I got to know A. better as a person, what her interests and behaviors are, what she likes to talk about, who her family is and so on. I went to visit her weekly, building a bond of trust the more often I went to see her.
The French title 'Floraison', literally translated as 'blossom', is a nod to her love of flowers, but also to the blossoming of the person with dementia when flipping through the book full of personal touches and starting points that stimulate conversation.
