Instructions not included: dementia-friendly approaches to DMI design

The development of bespoke musical tools such as many accessible digital musical instruments (ADMI) can neces- sitate specific design constraints. Within a field which of- ten promotes out of the box thinking and new interactions with experimental technologies, how do we design for user groups where these notions of interaction will be less famil- iar, and/or increasingly challenging due to the progression of cognitive decline? The relationship between age and the use of technol- ogy is understood within the wider context of human com- puter interaction (HCI), however, how this applies specifi- cally to musical interaction or contributes to a ‘dementia- friendly’ approach to digital musical instrument (DMI) de- sign is drastically underrepresented within the NIME com- munity. Following a scoping review of technology for arts activities designed for older adults with cognitive decline, we ran a series of involvement activities with a range of stakeholders living with, or caring for those living with de- mentia. Consolidating the knowledge and experience shared at these events, we propose five considerations for designing dementia-friendly digital musical instruments. We illustrate our approach with a range of new instruments co-designed to enable increased interaction with music for people living with dementia.