Familiar actions. Especially people with dementia have limited capacity to learn new
interactions with digital user interfaces. Physical objects, however, provide at least
three advantages: (1) interactions are based on familiar and basic actions (such as
grabbing, moving or lifting objects), (2) they provide haptic stimulation, and (3) they
often allow for shared interaction in a social setting. In the workshop at the care home
we could observe that especially the objects that looked most familiar (the book and
the teddy) attracted seniors and could be used by people with dementia without supervision.
Although the users did not immediately see the buttons in the book, they were
eager to touch the pages on different spots to trigger the sound. Many experts also
liked the interaction with the window via RFID-enhanced postcards, but we observed
in the field, that in the current implementation (card has to be placed on the windowsill)
mobility was a limiting factor.