A usability study with healthcare professionals of a customizable framework for reminiscence and music based cognitive activities for people with dementia

The possibility of using serious games to stimulate people with dementia (PwD) has gained much attention in recent years. However, most of such games are not adapted to individual needs of such population in terms of the design of technology and its content. Thus, the desired therapeutic outcomes may not be achieved. Alternatively, more traditional approaches, such as the usage of music and reminiscence, have been shown to be able to lead to positive outcomes. Here, we propose a framework for serious games that allows healthcare professionals to customize music and reminiscence-based activities to stimulate PwD. It runs on an augmented reality setup, but also on PC, interactive table and tablet. Results from a usability study show that participants (1) were efficient in using the framework, (2) therapists are very interested in using it for stimulation purposes in PwD and (3) the usage of the framework was adequate in terms of effort and workload for PwD. Future deployments will be discussed in this article regarding the usage of the framework.