SENSE-SENSITIVE DESIGN


Maximising access to natural light will help to remove the shadows that might be perceived as a danger.


them, or feel anxiety over walking on a perfectly level floor. However, if we are to design spaces that work for vulnerable and neurodiverse people, we need to try. That’s why Tarkett has adopted a virtual reality (VR) tool that allows professionals, including interior designers, to see the world through the eyes of a person living with dementia. This ‘virtual reality empathy platform’ is the world’s first and only evidence-based dementia filter. Look at a carpet with your own eyes, and you might see a pretty pattern. Look at it through the VR tool and you’ll see scary changes in depth that make the carpet seem dangerous to walk on. Knowing what the users of your space actually see will allow you to design dementia-friendly facilities.


Visual cues


The use of visual cues such as painting a door and its frame in contrasting colours will do a lot to help a person with dementia move around with ease. However, as well as selecting appropriate levels of colour contrast, it is also important to choose the right colours and textures. A black or dark


A good degree of autonomy is key for all of us as we age, and taking into account all five senses can play a significant part.


grey floor could be perceived by someone with dementia as an empty space like a black hole. Asking them to step onto it is like asking someone to walk off a cliff. Likewise, a very shiny floor could look like water.


Visual cues can also be used to discourage unsafe behaviour; if there is a specific door that you don’t want people with dementia to wander through, painting it the exact same colour as the doorframe and surrounding walls will make people less likely to notice and use it. When planning the visual cues for navigating a space, it’s useful to remember that people with dementia also tend to share the common visual problems that come with age, such as a tendency to look downwards. This means that to be most useful, signage is best placed lower than we normally think of as ‘eye level’. If you design for the sight problems that come with dementia, you find that you are also making things easier for people with all sorts of age-related sight problems: reduction of contrast, discomfort with glare, smaller visual field, and more.


Maximising light


Good lighting is one of the most important tools for making a space dementia-friendly, and this is one of the many examples of how one good design choice comes with multiple benefits. For example, maximising access to natural light will help to remove the shadows that might be perceived as a danger. It will also help people with dementia to regulate their body clock, which is an increasing problem as the condition progresses. Good natural light in the day, combined with the use of blackout blinds at night, help to regulate the body’s sleep-wake cycle, as well as providing obvious visual cues about whether it’s night or day.


If there isn’t as much daylight as you might wish, the light reflectance value (LRV) of surfaces becomes even more important. Most older people have some sight impairment, but also difficulty with glare, so an LRV of between 10% and 40% is perfect for floors. Walls should have a significantly different LRV, so that people with poor 3D perception can easily tell where the floor ends and the wall begins. This gives people the confidence to move through the space without fear.


If colour contrasts are missing, those with dementia will miss important information.


THE NETWORK | OCTOBER 2020


Tarkett said: “If you design for the sight problems that come with dementia, you find that you are also making things easier for people with all sorts of age-related sight problems.”


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