Abstract Over the past decade, a range of methodological approaches, user studies, and research results focused on technology for people with dementia has led to insights into the design of innovative solutions that can be embedded in the complex daily lives of people with dementia and their care-network. This paper recounts experiences and lessons learned over the course of a three-year participatory design project with and for people with dementia and their caregivers in domestic and institutional care settings. It contributes with long-term insights and reflections on the challenges confronting researchers in these sensitive care domains and discusses the need to 'know the users' and their care-networks so as to enable a deeper understanding of their unique difficulties. In particular, it examines the relationship between empathic understanding, experience-centered design, and the social appropriation of ICT, in our case exergames, in these various healthcare settings. What this might mean not only for future technology design, but also for the conduct of human-centered research is then discussed. We emphasize that designing appropriate assistive technologies for people with dementia requires sustained, empathetic engagement with both people with dementia and their caregivers, grounded in regular, trust-building interactions. Caregivers play a vital role in the appropriation and maintenance of these systems and researchers must be prepared for the emotional demands and relational commitments that such work entails. By embedding technology development within the rhythms of care and prioritizing mutual respect, researchers can create more meaningful, responsive, and sustainable support systems.

This paper presents the results of a long-term exploratory study that examined the social and emotional impact of using a social robot with a variety of applications to promote activities for people with advanced dementia and their caregivers. Qualitative data was collected over 10-months in a secured care environment in which we explored the appropriation of a social robot by 23 participants, including 13 PwAD, their family members, and professional caregivers. Our findings indicate that the use of the social robot demonstrated the potential to improve well-being, engagement, and social interaction of PwAD, even demonstrating the ability to create new memories and experiences. We discuss requirements and challenges in integrating social robots into secured care environments to provide a nuanced understanding for future research aiming for appropriate and inclusive care outcomes and socially embedded innovations that address the social actors involved and thus contribute to practical solutions for professional care.

Previous CSCW research has paid increasing attention to regional innovation systems providing the context for CSCW research and design. In this paper we provide insights into attempts to intervene in such a regional innovation system via practice-oriented activities. Our findings describe experiences of co-creating knowledge around digitization of SMEs on a regional level, beyond individual company contexts. We reflect on the benefits and challenges such an approach affords and highlight the importance of interpersonal relationships and similarities between practices in different contexts to enable intended but also initially unexpected knowledge spillovers. Our findings highlight how a praxeological approach to CSCW can be influential in regional development programs, and open this field to CSCW research and design. We draw out lessons for similar interventions and outline fruitful avenues for future research.

This paper presents the outcomes of an exploratory study focused on the evaluation of an interactive music exergame for People with Dementia (PwD) and their caregivers. PwD tend to isolate themselves from the outside world, therefore carers need to develop strategies to maintain communication with them. Studies indicate that music–based activities provide an effective way to achieve social interaction with PwD. At the same time, physical activity plays a major role in dementia-related interventions because it can slow down progression and provide meaningful stimulation. Our developed interactive music game bounds these two concerns together; we evaluated the system afterwards regarding its individual and social impact and its integration into the daily routines of both PwD and their caregivers, focusing on its capacity to provide both enjoyment and relief from some of the effects of dementia. Qualitative data collected over 4 months confirmed the valuable impact of music-based interventions of PwD. Of particular note was how PwD used the game to improve or maintain their physical condition while recovering past memories and an interest in social interaction.

Ageing societies and the associated pressure on the care systems are major drivers for new developments in socially assistive robotics. To understand better the real-world potential of robot-based assistance, we undertook a 10-week case study in a care home involving groups of residents, caregivers and managers as stakeholders. We identified both, enablers and barriers to the potential implementation of robot systems. The study employed the robot platform Pepper, which was deployed with a view to understanding better multi-domain interventions with a robot supporting physical activation, cognitive training and social facilitation. We employed the robot in a group setting in a care facility over the course of 10 weeks and 20 sessions, observing how stakeholders, including residents and caregivers, appropriated, adapted to, and perceived the robot. We also conducted interviews with 11 residents and caregivers. Our results indicate that the residents were positively engaged in the training sessions that were moderated by the robot. The study revealed that such humanoid robots can work in a care home but that there is a moderating person needed, that is in control of the robot.

There has been increasing interest in designing for dementia in recent years. Empirical investigation is now needed of the long-term role of caregivers in appropriating ICTs into the complex daily life of people with dementia (PwD). We present here the outcomes of a 4-month evaluation of the individual, social and institutional impact of a videogame-based training system. The everyday behavior and interactions of 52 PwD and 25 caregivers was studied qualitatively, focusing on the role played by caregivers in integrating the system into daily routines. Our results indicate that the successful appropriation of ICT for PwD depends partly on the physical, cognitive and social benefits for PwD, but especially on the added value perceived by their social care-network. We discuss the need for design in dementia to develop more socially embedded innovations that can address the social actors involved and thus contribute to practical solutions for professional and private care.

Digital participation has become an important issue in modern societies, typically focusing on groups prone to marginalization. From this perspective, less attention has yet been paid to imprisoned persons. Many penitentiary systems are formally characterized by the basic requirement of resocialization. Accordingly, life in prison should be largely adapted to conditions outside and to fundamental social changes, which must be considered in designing the framework for prison systems. Still, the digital opening of the prison is debated controversially, not least due to anticipated security issues. Hence, to raise awareness about challenges for digital participation of prisoners, we conducted a knowledge-sociological analysis (SKAD) of the public discourse on the use of ICT by prison inmates in Germany. We thereby seek to advance knowledge and insights from social and organizational practice arising from the use of ICT in context of total institutions and create the basis for action from a socio-informatics perspective.

This paper presents the outcomes of an exploratory field study that examined the social impact of an ICT-based suite of exergames for people with dementia and their caregivers. Qualitative data was collected over a period of 8 months, during which time we studied the daily life of 14 people with dementia and their informal and professional caregivers. We focus on the experiential aspects of the system and examine its social impact when integrated into the daily routines of both people with dementia themselves and their professional and family caregivers. Our findings indicate that relatives were able to regain leisure time, whilst people with dementia were able to recapture certain aspects of their social and daily activities that might otherwise have been lost to them. Results suggest that the system enhanced social-interaction, invigorated relationships, and improved the empowerment of people with dementia and their caregivers to face daily challenges.

Demographic change is a challenge for every individual, families, society, science, the economy and the labor market, for social security systems and for policy as a whole. The challenge will increase with every year and the risk of suffering from dementia and therefore, being in need of care is increasing. To Care for those who are in need is a responsibility for the whole society. The use of ICT-based technologies combined with a holistic approach may support and promote a self-sustaining life-style for people with dementia and their caregivers. In this context, ICT-based solutions are a promising approach for patients suffering from early stage dementia and their caregivers. The objective of the PhD study is in the initial stage (pre-study), to analyze empirically the given practices in the specific field of dementia care in form of a requirement analysis. The next stage comes up with a design for an ICT artifact related to the findings of the first phase, and in the third stage, the author investigates the appropriation of the technical artifact over a longer period of time in different settings. The doctoral colloquium will serve as a platform to discuss and share current research activities, methodology, future publications and experiences in the field of qualitative work with respect to technology design for people with dementia.

As a result of ageing societies, the prevalence of dementia, and accordingly the need of care is increasing rapidly. Here, the use of ICT-based technologies may facilitate and promote a self-sustaining life-style for people with dementia and their caregivers. The presented poster describes early findings from the project MobiAssist and outlines the ICT-based training system. The system aims to increase the physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia, relief the caregivers and improve wellbeing of involved parties.

Dementia not only affects the cognitive capabilities, especially memory and orientation, but also physical capabilities, which are associated with a decrease of physical activities. Here, ICT can play a major role to improve health, quality of life and wellbeing in older adults suffering from dementia and related stakeholders, such as relatives, professional and informal caregivers. The aim of the presented system is to increase physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia and their caregivers to support them in daily life activities, reduce the strain of the caregivers and improve both their wellbeing.

Need for care and accordingly the prevalence of dementia is increasing rapidly. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may have the potential to support collaboration and cooperation between people with dementia and their caregivers and thus promote independency, wellbeing and quality of life of involved parties. In this context, the authors investigated the potential of an ICT-based videogame system to generate and facilitate social experiences of people with dementia and their caregivers. 26 people with dementia and their caregivers participated in a 16 month participatory design study. Results suggest that collaboration and cooperation among involved parties increased by using the system. Further, the study revealed positive and negative social experiences triggered by the videogame based system. This article will report on these results and provide implications that may support researchers to design similar systems with the potential to increase collaboration and cooperation among people with dementia and their caregivers.