JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Assistive technology is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable for supporting people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners living at home. However, most technology has not been co-designed alongside PLWD and their families.

Objective:

Across three experiments, we investigated the features of tablet-based prompts that best support PLWD complete activities of daily living at home, measuring prompt effectiveness and gaining feedback from PLWD and care partners about their experiences.

Methods:

In Experiment 1, we varied the prompts in a 3 (visual type: text, photo, icon) × 3 (audio type: none, symbolic sound, verbal instruction) experimental design, using repeated measures across multiple testing sessions involving single step activities. In Experiment 2, we tested the most effective prompt breakdown for complex multi-step tasks, comparing 3 conditions (1-step, 3-step, and 7-step instructions). In Experiment 3, we compared initiation and maintenance alerts that involved either an auditory tone, a verbal instruction, or a combination of both.

Results:

Our results showed that verbal instructions were more useful for task completion than either tone-based or visual prompts. Second, more granular breakdown of tasks was generally more useful, but this varied across individuals. Third, while a voice or text maintenance alert enabled PLWD to persist with a multi-step task for longer, task initiation still often required support from a care partner. Throughout, we asked PLWD and care partners to reflect on the usefulness of prompting technology in their everyday lives, and what could be developed to better meet their needs.

Conclusions:

These findings can help inform developers of assistive technology about prompt features that promote the usefulness of home prompting systems for PLWD.