Design for Dementia : how emotional design can aid and guide people with neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer’s, through their daily routines at care homes and how it affects and facilitates visual communication.

Abstract

The thesis researches the effects of emotional design in the area of way-finding and signage design for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Emotions play a central role in the human ability – on a visceral, behavioural, and reflective level – to understand and learn about the world. It is already known that patients who suffer from this disease have a changed perception of the world. The goal of this thesis is to investigate concepts and characteristics that will mark the base for designing a guiding system based on Emotional Design. In addition to a detailed evaluation of the literature, three Icelandic health care and architecture experts were asked in qualitative talks and interviews. The results of this work confirm the assumption that today it is more important than ever to understand the influence of emotions on design and vice versa.