Finding the service you need: human centered design of a Digital Interactive Social Chart in DEMentia care (DEM-DISC)

Community dwelling people with dementia and their informal carers experience a lot of problems. In the course of the disease process people with dementia become more dependent on others and professional help is often necessary. Many informal carers and people with dementia experience unmet needs with regard to information on the disease and on the available care and welfare offer, therefore they tend not to utilize the broad spectrum of available care and welfare services. This can have very negative consequences like unsafe situations, social isolation of the person with dementia and overburden of informal carers with consequent increased risk of illness for them. The development of a DEMentia specific Digital Interactive Social Chart (DEM-DISC) may counteract these problems. DEM-DISC is a demand oriented website for people with dementia and their carers, which is easy, accessible and provides users with customized information on healthcare and welfare services. DEM-DISC is developed according to the human centered design principles, this means that people with dementia, informal carers and healthcare professionals were involved throughout the development process. This paper describes the development of DEM-DISC from four perspectives, a domain specific content perspective, an ICT perspective, a user perspective and an organizational perspective. The aims and most important results from each perspective will be discussed. It is concluded that the human centered design was a valuable method for the development of the DEM-DISC.