Mind the design Optimizing the design of digital health technologies for people living with dementia

Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias is a group of progressive cognitive diseases primarily affecting memory, thinking, and behaviour. Worldwide, it affects 55 million people and is projected to rise significantly due to the aging population. Digital health technologies (DHT) have the potential to support people living with dementia in their daily life and monitor their health risk factors. However, designing dementia‐friendly DHT is complex. Challenges lie in accounting for the unique clinical presentation of symptoms, which can include issues related to cognition, perception, physical abilities, frame of mind, and speech and language. Additionally, personal characteristics, such as digital (health) literacy, can impact the use of DHT. There is a need to better understand these complex barriers to using DHT. With this understanding, guidance can be provided to researchers and software developers to improve the design of DHT to increase their usability for people living with dementia. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify, synthesize, and prioritize barriers to using DHT, specifically mHealth, for people living with dementia (Part I) and to develop design principles and practical guidelines (Part II). The work in this thesis led to the development of the MOLDEM-US framework and the DEMIGNED principles, both contributing to human-centered design research. MOLDEM-US supports to better understand and define user needs and capabilities. Additionally, it can help create a deeper understanding of usability test results. The DEMIGNED principles can be applied in early-development and (re)design of DHT and the analysis of data from usability evaluation methods.