Vulnerability is a subjective, embodied experience that unfolds during transitions such as relocation, where identities, routines, and social ties are unsettled. This paper examines how vulnerability manifests through bodily sensations, movements, and gestures that often escape verbal articulation. Using established embodied interaction design methods, we conducted three bodystorming workshops with fifteen international PhD students who recently relocated. Through movements and multisensory materials, participants explored and expressed their lived experiences of transition. Based on the insights, we contribute an embodied vocabulary for vulnerability consisting of: 1) Contracted Postures, 2) Restricted Reach, 3) Rhythmic Compression, 4) Micro-adjustments to regain stability, 5) Gaze Regulation and 6) Gestures of Waiting and Pause and design implications that can aid the design process. By exploring how body, grounded in its movement, sensory, and felt qualities, can surface vulnerability through embodied methods, this paper contributes a lens for design that attunes technologies to sensitive transitional experiences.

People with dementia often experience social isolation in daily life. Generative AI (GenAI) technologies, producing seemingly new content on the spot and tailoring it to users’ wishes, open new avenues for promoting meaningful social connections in dementia care. This study involved 17 people with dementia in 6 workshops and explored how they responded to and perceived three GenAI models, Copilot, Midjourney, and Suno, with a focus on social connectedness. Our results reveal that people with dementia engage in a relational process when using GenAI together: they collectively evaluate the outcomes of the models and negotiate further prompts. Moreover, they gradually develop an understanding of GenAI and become more critical about its output. We contribute to HCI by demonstrating how GenAI can foster social bonding between people with dementia through the co-creation of shared realities, and by discussing guidelines for designing effective and ethically responsible GenAI for people with dementia.

Professional caregivers want to provide feelings of security and comfort to people with dementia in advanced care, but limited resources frequently restrict professional caregivers from doing so. One potential solution to make social, non-verbal connections with people in advanced dementia care is the use of artifacts that offer comfort and stimulating tactile experiences. In this study, we explored the role of two design artifacts, the Mano Quilt, a weighted blanket, and the Mano Fold, a foldable pillow, in supporting caregivers to increase feelings of comfort and security in people with advanced dementia through warmth. In a field study, we collected data through observations of 26 residents with dementia who interacted with the two artifacts and 17 interviews with their formal caregivers in three care organizations. We reveal which aesthetic and material qualities evoke haptic and bodily experiences such as presence, comfort, and activity and how the artifacts support existing caregiving practices. We encourage future researchers to design to enrich the senses as an aesthetic experience and provide emotional support and companionship to increase well-being for people with advanced dementia.

The progression of dementia leads to a loss of initiative and agency, halting daily activities, hobbies, or social encounters. Open-ended play can encourage initiative but remains underexplored in dementia. This paper explores how technology-driven design can support open-ended play, making social interactions more enjoyable and renewing interest in daily activities. We conducted five workshops at dementia daycare facilities, observing people with dementia engage with playful circuit-building toolkits to identify strategies. Findings reveal these toolkits stimulated self-direction and initiative to accomplish self-imposed goals, both independently and collaboratively. We show how open-ended play fosters confidence, resilience, social engagement, and self-expression, allowing people with dementia to exercise choice and share moments of achievement. We provide design implications for technology to stimulate initiative through open-ended play by 1) balancing structure and freedom, 2) emphasizing novelty and material diversity for non-verbal social connection, and 3) considering age-appropriate aesthetics.

The transition from home to formal residential care is described as stressful and emotionally difficult for people with dementia and their informal caregivers. While HCI research investigated how technology supports people with dementia at home or in formal care, there still is a need to understand how technology can support care transitions. This paper presents a practice-informed approach to gather insights collaboratively between care professionals and HCI researchers. We interviewed 42 informal caregivers of people with dementia to uncover their experiences before, during, and after care transitions. Our findings reveal how informal caregivers were: 1) navigating hurdles of information on care transitions, 2) caught up in the evolving challenges of informal caregiving, and 3) shifting from uncertainty in decision-making to acceptance of admission. Next, we formulate six design opportunities to support transitions in dementia care and encourage HCI researchers to pursue a practice-informed approach to address societal challenges in dementia.

Dance exercises offer recreational and social activities that engage people with dementia in physical exercise to increase fitness and cognitive functioning. However, there is limited research on how technology supports people with dementia to initiate and engage in music-supported dance exercises at home. We present Switch2Move: a TV-based home system with a tangible interface to trigger music-supported exercises at home for people with dementia. Four people with dementia and their informal caregivers explored a mockup to reveal design improvements for stimulating initiative and engagement. Next, we evaluated a high-fidelity prototype in the homes of three other couples during a one-week pilot study. The Switch2Move home system stimulated initiative by providing ongoing access in the home setting and supported engagement through daily enjoyment, calmness, and relief. We present opportunities for technology to increase self-efficacy, offer rich experiences, and fit the physical and social home environment of people with dementia.

Media architecture exploits interactive technology to encourage passers-by to engage with an architectural environment. Whereas most media architecture installations focus on visual stimulation, we developed a permanent media facade that rhythmically knocks xylophone blocks embedded beneath 11 window sills, according to the human actions constantly traced via an overhead camera. In an attempt to overcome its apparent limitations in engaging passers-by more enduringly and purposefully, our study investigates the impact of feedforward learning, a constructive interaction method that instructs passers-by about the results of their actions. Based on a comparative (n=25) and a one-month in-the-wild (n=1877) study, we propose how feedforward learning could empower passers-by to understand the interaction of more abstract types of media architecture, and how particular quantitative indicators capturing this learning could predict how enduringly and purposefully a passer-might engage. We believe these contributions could inspire more creative integrations of non-visual modalities in future public interactive interventions.

People with dementia and their caregivers aging in place have expressed the need for social, emotional, and recreational interventions at home. Listening to everyday sounds evokes memories and provides conversational cues to support social relations and elicit emotional responses for people with dementia. However, research has yet to explore how these meaningful experiences can be transferred into home settings. This paper presents the insights from our co-design study that involved three people with dementia and their partners in developing an interactive sound player for listening to everyday sounds at home. We report on the motivations of people with dementia and their caregivers to engage in meaningful sound-based activities at home and present the Tumbler as a prototype to foster initiative and agency in exploring familiar everyday sounds. We present design implications of how sound can enrich the everyday experiences of dementia by facilitating social and pleasurable moments at home.

Research in HCI is increasingly investigating the role of technology in supporting meaningful and social activities to enhance the lived experiences of people with dementia. However, to further enrich the daily experiences in care, more insight is needed into how technology can directly promote social participation and pleasurable experiences in everyday care situations. This paper discusses the deployment of VITA and SAM: two research products that address the social and emotional needs of residents in day-to-day dementia care. We report how both products offered aesthetic and sensory enrichment, created new experiences in the everyday, and were integrated into the care environment. Furthermore, we identify implications for design to provide: 1) aesthetics in care, 2) authentic experiences, 3) reinforcing everyday life, and 4) community-driven use in practice. We contribute to existing research by demonstrating how technology for dementia care can transcend instrumental use and culminate in warm-felt everyday experiences.

The representation of sounds derived from everyday life can be beneficial for people with dementia by evoking memories and emotional responses. Despite this potential, integrating sound and sound-based interventions in care facilities has not received much research attention. In this paper, we present the findings from a field study that explored the responses of 19 people with advanced dementia to a selection of everyday sounds presented to them in a care home and the role of these responses in the care environment. To study this, we deployed Vita, a 'pillow-like' sound player, in two dementia care facilities for four weeks, during which observations were recorded. Afterwards, we conducted interviews with caregivers who used Vita in everyday care practice. Our findings reveal how everyday sounds provided by Vita stimulated meaningful conversation, playfulness, and connection between residents and caregivers. Furthermore, we propose design implications for integrating everyday sounds in dementia care.

There has been an increased interest in researching the beneficial effects of everyday sounds, other than music on people with dementia. However, to turn this potential into concrete design applications, a qualitative understanding of how people engage with sound is needed. This paper presents the outcomes of three workshops, exploring the personal experiences evoked by soundscapes of people in early to mid-stages of dementia. Using the dementia soundboard, we provide key insights into how sounds from everyday life triggered personal associations, memories of the past, emotional responses, and the sharing of experiences. Furthermore, we identified several design considerations and practical insights for sound-based technologies in the context of dementia care. This paper sets out a path for further design-research explorations and development of concrete sound-based interventions, for enriching the everyday lives of people with dementia.