Memory Mosaics: A Meaningful Play project about collaborative memories and fragile stories

Overview

https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/

Memory Mosaics is one of the QUT Design Lab’s Meaningful Play projects (https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/projects/meaningful-play/). Using participatory and co-design methodologies, we collaborate with researchers, centres, industry, and other stakeholders to reimagine possibilities for engagement with meaning and playfulness.

Memory Mosaics is a project in the Meaningful Play suite. It is a gentle game for families, carers, and people with dementia. The design is based on a notion that memories are personal yet communal, often recalled most vividly through collaborative efforts.

This project taps into the growing interest in meaningful play and analogue - tabletop game design for health and well-being. It addresses the challenging issues families face when a member is diagnosed with dementia and they seek ways to support and preserve their stories.

Specifically, the project explores creating a conversational card game to facilitate the collection of stories from individuals with dementia and making these stories accessible to their families initially, and later to professional caregivers.

The design of Memory Mosaics draws from the team’s expertise in creative playful designs and games that capture stories and experiences. By integrating storytelling, design, and dementia care, we aim to offer a distinctive experience that raises awareness, educates, promotes empathy, and honours the life stories of people living with dementia.

The project has been funded through a QUT Design Lab “seed and weed” grant and is in the process of developing a high-fidelity prototype in order to collect data for our design research and secure future funding.

Research engagement

The student will engage with design research through the prototyping, production design and final production stages of a tabletop game for the health sector.

Research activities

The student will be working with a transdisciplinary team from the School of Design and QUT’s Design Lab, consisting of Dr Claire Brophy (Industrial Design), Dr Nicole Vickery (Visual Communication Design and Games), Dr Jane Turner (Interaction and Game Design) and Dr Abbe Winter (Research Methodologies). Depending on timetables and other schedule constraints, the students may be working with Dementia Training Australia (DTA) representatives or similar professional participants in the play testing phase of the project.

They will help to create the visual aesthetic, style guide and packaging of the current Memory Mosaics prototype (see https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/2024/03/26/qa-claire-brophy-on-games-for-people-living-with-dementia/ ). Depending on the applicant, there will also be opportunity to engage in play testing, client consultations, and design refinement with a view to production of rule books, how to play materials, as well as some marketing materials.

VRES student project schedule will take place within the summer non-teaching period (November to February). Specific time commitments and regular meetings will be negotiated with successful applicants.

Outcomes

The broader Memory Mosaics project has the overall aims of using meaningful play to improve health and well-being. For the VRES participant, the key outcomes of this work are in the form of a physical artifact as part of the overall Memory Mosaics project. This fully resolved game will be used in further research into the collaborative nature of memory and rescue of fragile stories and will be presented at conferences and other opportunities, as well as becoming the basis for further research funding submissions.

Skills and experience

Our ideal candidate has a strong interest and background in design research and visual communication design and printing. They will have a knowledge of tabletop board games as a player and understanding of user experience / interface design would be an advantage (e.g. card design). Experience of information design and presentation as well as book production will also be very useful (for the ‘How to play’ booklet).

Start date

11 November, 2024

End date

7 February, 2025

Location

The Design Lab at QUT Kelvin Grove

Additional information

We recommend looking at the Design Lab’s Meaningful Play website and Dr Claire Brophy’s blog post on the Memory Mosaic’s project (see https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/2024/03/26/qa-claire-brophy-on-games-for-people-living-with-dementia/ ).

New IP produced as part of the VRES role will remain with the Design Lab Meaningful Play team but the VRES participants are encouraged to use their design process within the project for their portfolios.

Keywords

• Visual Communication Design
• Information Design
• Tabletop board games
• Game design
• UX design
• Design for Health

Contact

Dr Jane Turner

j.turner@qut.edu.au