The person living with dementia, their carer and their digital technology

The paper focuses on appropriate consideration of end users in the development of software that is part of an ICT or AT intended for use by people with dementia and their carers. Extracting data from a literature review leads to the conclusion that papers exploring the design of such technologies do not adequately report all that is needed to have a detailed understanding of the roles of carers, their ICT skills and likely workload. In the light of this the paper goes on to propose use of a research framework which if operated appropriately would ensure correct consideration of all end users – that’s people with dementia and their carers – needs and feedback ion the design and evaluation phases of innovation. It is noted that the framework would work for individuals, populations or situations where there were only one type of end user, what makes it different is what you do within the framework steps.