10 August 2019: Design evaluation in four countries

Now in its fourth and final year, the MinD project team is working on drawing together all the insights from this exciting research. During this secondment, which took place in the Netherlands during July, seven visiting colleagues spent two weeks hosted by their Dutch partners analysing and comparing findings from the design evaluations, improving parts of the designs, writing up findings for publications and preparing for the MinD conference in September.

At the University of Twente (UT), colleagues met to hear about and discuss the evaluation results from the Good Life Kit (GLK). Thomas van Rompay, UT, presented the findings from the Dutch evaluation conducted with partner Zorggroep Sint Marten. Rosa Almeida and Irene Gonzalez from INTRAS, Spain, presented their results, followed by Kristina Niedderer, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Jennifer Lim, University of Wolverhampton (UW), who worked on and presented the results from the evaluation in the UK. Results from the evaluations in Germany will be added in September. The results so far show great promise for the “This is Me” board game of the GLK, while the ‘Living the Life’ reflective booklet needed further development. Alessia Macchi from Duit, Italy, Sebastian Lorenz from the Technical University Dresden, and Dew Harrison, UW, worked on the improvement of the content and a new, beautiful, nature-inspired design. 

The other major task of the secondment was drawing together findings in various publications for conferences, book chapters, and other, publicly accessible documents. Researchers picked up on the work from the previous secondment to revisit, improve and complete publications, such as design guidelines and policy recommendations for designers, dementia care organisations and anyone else wishing to engage in co-design and use design to improve the quality of life for people with dementia.

Alongside, preparations for the international MinD conference, 19-20 September 2019 in Dresden are coming to fruition.  The full programme is now available with three keynote speakers (design, health professions and lived experience speaker), and a variety of papers, design proposals and workshop sessions by a wide range of international presenters. Further details are available on the conference website: www.mind4dementia.eu

Last but not least, colleagues enjoyed once more the amazing ‘Deventer op Stelten’ street theatre festival with its spectacular sights and sounds.