Storytelling

A market research team I was working with conducted extensive background research into  loneliness and isolation experienced by the people with dementia. In a survey in 2017, over 1/3  of people living with dementia reported feeling lonely. Not only do people with dementia often  feel that their autonomous ability to participate in communities is decreased, they often avoid  social interactions due to the stigma of others in society.

The goal of the research was to come up with a solution that can help people with dementia  feel more integrated in their neighborhoods, as one of the major challenges faced was stigma.  At first, my team was quick to Ideating new solutions without profoundly understanding the  challenges faced by the key stake holders (People with dementia and caretakers), and that  shadowed the whole concept of coming up with a robust solution. But after attending an online  session about design thinking, we quickly understood what we were doing wrong, therefore  went back to the drawing board and started reiterating our plan. So, our first milestone was to  firmly understand the thoughts of our stakeholders by empathizing so that we get to  understand and internalize their perspective; therefore, we did a market research with care  takers and people with dementia, even though it was through the internet because of the  pandemic, we got to really understand the root cause of the problems they face.

On the ideation stage, we explored the positive impact of intergenerational interaction on  people living with dementia. This insight was gained by conducting interviews with people with  dementia in the form of storytelling and using open ended questions, as well as reading prior  psychological studies on the topic. Through this we came across many studies demonstrating  quantitative and qualitative proof of how intergenerational communication for people with  dementia led to an increased likelihood of positive emotions and slowed symptom progression.  Furthermore, from our interviews we found that the overwhelming majority of people with  dementia expressed a willingness to interact with children as it reminded them of spending  time with their own children and grandchildren in the past, and by co-designing with our  stakeholders, we were able to come up with a prototype.

We used storytelling to get insight into users, build empathy and reach them emotionally, and  we were also cable to create personas to represent target users and add conflict to stories that  reflect their user journeys and problems in our pitch which really allured the panelists. Thus, I  firmly believe that Crafting stories, designers can better understand what users want from a  solution.


Storytelling A market research team I was working with conducted extensive background research into loneliness and isolation experienced by the people with dementia . In a survey in 2017 , over 1/3 of people living with dementia reported feeling lonely . Not only do people with dementia often feel that their autonomous ability to participate in communities is decreased , they often avoid social interactions due to the stigma of others in society . The goal of the research was to come up with a solution that can help people with dementia feel more integrated in their neighborhoods , as one of the major challenges faced was stigma . At first , my team was quick to Ideating new solutions without profoundly understanding the challenges faced by the key stake holders ( People with dementia and caretakers ) , and that shadowed the whole concept of coming up with a robust solution . But after attending an online session about design thinking , we quickly understood what we were doing wrong , therefore went back to the drawing board and started reiterating our plan . So , our first milestone was to firmly understand the thoughts of our stakeholders by empathizing so that we get to understand and internalize their perspective ; therefore , we did a market research with care takers and people with dementia , even though it was through the internet because of the pandemic , we got to really understand the root cause of the problems they face . On the ideation stage , we explored the positive impact of intergenerational interaction on people living with dementia . This insight was gained by conducting interviews with people with dementia in the form of storytelling and using open ended questions , as well as reading prior psychological studies on the topic . Through this we came across many studies demonstrating quantitative and qualitative proof of how intergenerational communication for people with dementia led to an increased likelihood of positive emotions and slowed symptom progression . Furthermore , from our interviews we found that the overwhelming majority of people with dementia expressed a willingness to interact with children as it reminded them of spending time with their own children and grandchildren in the past , and by co - designing with our stakeholders , we were able to come up with a prototype . We used storytelling to get insight into users , build empathy and reach them emotionally , and we were also cable to create personas to represent target users and add conflict to stories that reflect their user journeys and problems in our pitch which really allured the panelists . Thus , I firmly believe that Crafting stories , designers can better understand what users want from a solution .