Dementia Care Works

Customer Discovery Interviews

The goal of the customer discovery interviews was to get a better understanding of both the current systems in place to assist in dementia care and the different potential environments that the DCW tool could be used in. These were conducted as conversational interviews with an informal script to guide the questions asked by the moderator.

Customer Discovery Analysis

Usability Sessions

The usability sessions served a dual purpose. The first was the proof-of-concept meetings and demonstrations to stakeholders laid out in the study objectives. The second was to collect feedback on the DCW tool as it exists to inform the next potential round of development. These sessions were conducted by sending the interviewees the link and login to the demo version of the DCW tool and then asking them to explore the assessment and report and provide us with feedback on the functionality and usefulness of the different elements.

Usability Session Analysis

Customer Discovery Findings

The following findings are a result of the customer discovery interviews. To read more details about these findings, please see the full report.

• Provider-Care Partner Communication
• Provider-Provider Communications
• DCW as a Communication Tool
• Direct Care Staffing
• Care Plan
• Care Needs
• Financial Barriers
• Cultural Barriers
• Care Partner Knowledge Gaps
• Provider Knowledge Gaps

Usability Findings

The following findings are a result of the usability sessions. Overall participants in the usability sessions thought that DCW was easy to navigate and simple to understand. To read more details about these findings, please see the full report.

• Care Partner vs PLWD Assessments
• DCW Assessment Introductions
• Question Phrasing
• Screener Completion
• Data Visualizations - Scoring Summary
• Data Visualizations - Assessment Graphs
• Dementia and Technology
• Alert Fatigue

Separate CP and PLWD Assessment Sessions

In the real world it would be better to have the CP and PLWD assessments be administered in their own bundles rather than going back and forth between the two. This would allow for more flexibility when it comes to scheduling the assessments, as the CP could potentially do their assessments prior to appointments via email.

Additional Detail in Scoring Summary

Some interviewees wanted more nuance in the trend indicator in the scoring summary to differentiate between big and small changes in score. Some requested to add more colors to the red and green arrows to create more of a stoplight indication to differentiate between small and big changes. Others requested to add the previous score to the “Compared to Last” column to do the same differing small and big changes.

Compare PLWD and Care Partner Assessments

In some instances, the same assessment is administered to both the care partner and the PLWD. When working with PLWD they can have trouble accurately answering questions about their health and well-being over time. It would be useful for interpreting scores to be able to see both assessment scores on the same graph to see how the PLWD interpretation of their own health differs from an outside perspective. Below the mock-up shows how layering the two assessment graphs makes it easier to interpret the difference in scores.

Add Color Coding to Graphs

Many of the interviewees liked the indications on if a score change was “good” or “bad” in the scoring summary but expressed that it would be more difficult to quickly determine the trend in the graphs of the scores over time. We recommend adding shading to the trend graphs to indicate the ranges of concerning scores. Below are two examples that illustrate how adding shading would make the trend of the assessment graphs easier to interpret.