Clear Cues: Supportive Wayfinding for Care Communities

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to develop and test Clear Cues (CC), a signage system for care communities that supports way finding in people with dementia. Way finding is a process through which people use informationin the environment to help them get to their desired destination. It's both the user experience of choosing a path and the design elements that aid orientation. A poorly designed environment can have adverse effects such as extreme reactions and aggressive behaviors by the cognitively impaired elderly. The long-term care (LTC) environment often acts a barrier to independence and way finding for people with dementia. Design features in LTC settings, such as many similar doorways along corridors, lack of windows to the outside, and poorly planned or improvised signage, resulted in poorer orientation. The search for information to aid orientation may cause frustration, anger or agitation. Poor way finding abilities jeopardize resident safety and cause bur