Wayfinding in Assisted Living Homes
Rebecca Davis, professor and researcher at the Grand Valley State University, received a research grant from the National Institute of Health to research how patients with Alzheimers disease navigate their living space. Assisted living homes can be drab or nondescript with long hallways adding to the confusion and frustration for those living in these homes. To research this problem and possible solutions, Davis recruited 40 people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and 40 without the disease to virtually walk through a simulation of an actual assisted living home in the MIDEN. Staff and students at the Duderstadt Center modeled a 3D environment to re-create details such as the complicated lighting or maze-like hallways, to create a natural and immersive experience. This allows users to fully experience how the color schemes, lighting, and wall detail can affect the experience of living in the home. Various “visual cues” are placed throughout the space at key locations to determine if these help the subject in remembering which paths lead to where they need to go. Rebecca currently utilizes two environments in her study, one with visual cues and one without. Subjects are shown the path they must go to reach a destination and then given an opportunity to travel there themselves-if they can remember how.