Design of A GPS Monitoring System for Dementia Care and its Challenges in Academia-Industry Project

We present a user-centered development process for a GPS monitoring system to be used in dementia care to support care for persons withwandering behavior. The usage of GPS systems in dementia care is still very low. The article takes a socio-technical stance on development and appropriation of GPS technology in dementia care and assesses the practical and ideological issues surrounding care to understand why. The results include ( 1) results from qualitative user studies from which design ideas, implications, and requirements for design and redesign were developed. ( 2) Description of the politics, negotiations, and challenges encountered in the project at hand. These processual matters had a powerful impact on the product that was finally envisaged. The design process was taken as a whole to illuminate the way in which design outcomes are arrived at and to foster discussion about how best practice might possibly be achieved.