Aesthetic Experience in the Acceptance of Wearable Technology for People With Dementia: Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Background: The prevalence of dementia has led to a growing interest in wearable technologies to assist dementia care. Despite their potential, these technologies face low adoption rates, often attributed to poor aesthetic design and insufficient consideration of user experience.

Objective: This study aims to (1) explore how the aesthetic design of wearable devices relates to their adoption and user experience in dementia care and (2) critically examine the ways in which aesthetic elements shape people with dementia’s perceptions of acceptability and inform future design considerations.

Methods: A critical interpretive synthesis with a systematic search was conducted across 2 databases, namely Web of Science and Scopus on August 22, 2024. Studies were included if they reported on the current use of wearable technologies in dementia care or provided value in qualitative studies addressing attitudes from people with dementia and their caregivers toward the wearable product. Two authors independently screened the abstracts and full texts to extract data, and additional studies were included from web searches, owing to their conceptual contributions to offering insights into the emergence of wearable technology, including the factors driving its commercial value and appraisal.

Results: A total of 63 studies were included in this study. Findings suggest that aesthetically considered designs are preferred by users when concerning their acceptance toward wearable devices, particularly when devices symbolize empowerment and support personal engagement. The objects that evoke comfort, emotional connection, and personal meaning are more likely to be accepted by people with dementia. Improved aesthetics may also support caregivers through more consistent and effective data collection.

Conclusions: This study uncovers a significant gap in the aesthetic design of wearable technologies for dementia care, limiting user acceptance and emotional engagement. By synthesizing key themes focusing on the interaction between user and product, this review proposes a conceptual framework for dementia care, emphasizing the importance of aesthetics in enabling more meaningful, inclusive, and human-centered design.