Designing the VR Probe: An Introductory Application to Virtual Reality for People Living with Dementia (PLWD)

Dementia is a condition which involves a gradual degradation of cognitive functioning over time. The number of people living with dementia (PLWD) is increasing every year. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in health related research has gained popularity, in part due to the availability of VR headsets such as the Oculus Quest and the HTC Vive and the immersive nature of VR. VR interventions are recognised as having great potential for PLWD. To ensure effective VR based experiments involving PLWD, it is critical to introduce this audience to VR. While there are commercially available introduction applications, none have been designed with PLWD in mind. This paper describes the design considerations made for a VR Probe application having a dual purpose: to introduce PLWD to VR and to help inform design decisions for future VR applications. This paper also describes the technological implementation decisions for a replicable VR environment such as task design, interaction system, multisensory design and virtual representation.