Abstract
This study demonstrates how participatory socio-material design can enable people with dementia (PwD) to articulate food preferences. Grounded in Furst et al.’s (1996) food choice process model, an action research methodology involving thirteen sessions with eight residents in a Flemish dementia care home developed and tested engaging materials across two phases: group interactions to assess material appropriateness and individual sessions to refine facilitation strategies across varying verbal communication capacities. Interactions and materials were evaluated on two interdependent dimensions: socio-material function (how artefacts co-constitute meaning) and validity and feasibility (intention-outcome alignment and interpret ability). Findings yield three design principles: contextual conciseness, cultural sensitivity, and personal is ation, and present a validity-feasibility matrix for participatory tools. Illustrated interaction dynamics and design insights underscore adaptive facilitation approaches. This work advances inclusive, context-sensitive practices in dementia care design and offers pathways for future research on non-verbal communication frameworks and culturally attuned engagement with PwD.
Keywords
Dementia care; Participatory design; Engaging materials; Food choice expression
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.762
Citation
Lai, R., Hendriks, N.,and Wilkinson, A.(2025) Let's Explore Food: Designing Interactions for People with Dementia to Express Food Choices, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.762
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 6 - Co-creation
Let's Explore Food: Designing Interactions for People with Dementia to Express Food Choices
This study demonstrates how participatory socio-material design can enable people with dementia (PwD) to articulate food preferences. Grounded in Furst et al.’s (1996) food choice process model, an action research methodology involving thirteen sessions with eight residents in a Flemish dementia care home developed and tested engaging materials across two phases: group interactions to assess material appropriateness and individual sessions to refine facilitation strategies across varying verbal communication capacities. Interactions and materials were evaluated on two interdependent dimensions: socio-material function (how artefacts co-constitute meaning) and validity and feasibility (intention-outcome alignment and interpret ability). Findings yield three design principles: contextual conciseness, cultural sensitivity, and personal is ation, and present a validity-feasibility matrix for participatory tools. Illustrated interaction dynamics and design insights underscore adaptive facilitation approaches. This work advances inclusive, context-sensitive practices in dementia care design and offers pathways for future research on non-verbal communication frameworks and culturally attuned engagement with PwD.