Voice Technology and Dementia with Natalia Suarez

VFH Episode 50

In this episode, Teri welcomes Natalia Suarez, a UX and Voice User Experience (VUX) designer who is passionate about using voice technology to solve the issue of Dementia.

Natalia is originally from the Dominican Republic and now living in London. She is studying interactive media and is currently working on three different skills that are geared towards tackling the issue of Dementia.

Key points from Natalia!

How to leverage voice technology to help those with Dementia.

Natalia’s Background

She was focused on graphic design, but later shifted into UX, which is what she has been doing for the last 5 years.
She recently completed a Master’s degree in Interactive Media Practice which is how she got involved in voice technology.

Master’s in Interactive Media Practice

This is a program at the University of Westminster and it entails topics such as social media, interaction design, user experience, mobile apps, wearables, and much more.

Getting Interested in Voice Technology

While looking for something major and unique to do for her final project, she came across someone interacting with an Echo device.
That caught her attention and as a UX designer, and she wanted to experience what it would be like to be a voice user interface designer.
She based her thesis project around that.

Focusing on Dementia

Her grandmother had Dementia before she passed away and Natalia always wondered how she could have communicated with her grandmother better so she could understand her needs. Her grandfather also has Dementia.
That formed her passion for tackling Dementia.

Voice Technology and Dementia with Natalia Suarez

Dementia and Voice Technology

For her final thesis project, she has developed 3 Alexa skills, one of which is published.
The published skill, Colour Mind, is a basic quiz for people with Dementia. It helps people going through memory loss remember colors and other things, and is dedicated to providing a fun and engaging way for Dementia patients to communicate with family members, carers, and other people. It helps them associate things from nature with the correct color names, and allows them to engage in informal conversations.
The other Alexa skills that she’s working on are “About Me” and “My Journey”.
About Me will be geared towards helping Dementia patients remember things about their lives like the names of their parents and other people, what things they like, and other things. This skill will be integrated with a form that a carer will complete for the patient, including all the information about the patient.
My Journey will be geared towards helping patients remember where they’re going. Natalia is most excited about this skill because it can be expanded and help so many people. A patient will be able to leave their house when going somewhere and if they forget where they’re going along the way, they will be able to ask Alexa to remind them where they’re going. This skill can be used in some many ways by both carers and patients.
About Me and My Journey will be ready for publishing on the skill store in a month’s time.

Feedback From Users About Colour Mind

She did a lot of user testing while working on the skill.
She did the testing online and also used card sorting through a tool called Optimal Workshop, where she had some of her friends test the skill with their grandparents who had Dementia.
Alexa’s responses are always positive whenever a patient answers something wrong.
Natalia has been working on making the skill multimodal.