Against Dedicated Methods: Relational Expertise in Participatory Design with People with Dementia

This chapter narrates the search for ways to involve people with dementia in the design process based on insights from three projects, several workshops and an educational module involving people with dementia and their network of caregivers and family. This six year-trajectory was part of a Ph.D. project and started ambitiously with the endeavor to find a dedicated method for involvement, inspired by those developed to involve children or people with aphasia. The aim was to develop a set of design guidelines for (successfully) involving people with dementia in the design process. It became clear that using a set of guidelines as a universal, dedicated, or passe-partout way of working for every person with dementia, would not work. We argue that the foundations for a more suitable individualized approach lie in the build-up of a personal relationship between the person with dementia and the designer. Based on such a personal relationship, ways to facilitate involvement of a person with dementia can be defined and design decisions can be collaboratively taken. Person-Centered Care is seen as a guide in the build-up of the relational expertise that a designer needs in order to collaborate with a person with dementia and that enables designers to value and articulate shared decision making.