Designing Comfort for People Dealing with Alopecia

Abstract

This Master Thesis describes a graduation project developed to investigate how to help people when disrupted life events occur and how to create strategies to empower them in coping with the situation. It is in connection with the research developed by the PhD candidate Patrizia D’Olivo. To date not many strategies were developed to empower people who suffer of the alopecia condition. Thus, the project attempted to help people with alopecia feel comfortable in their everyday lives by designing coping strategies for the individual with alopecia and anyone he feels close with.
In this project different research and design methods were applied, like interviewing, surveys, a co-creative session and design evaluation with assistance of the Alopecia Vereniging. Context and user research deepened the knowledge on the topic and classified the problems the target group encounters. The disrupted life event of alopecia and the population affected by this condition encounter a lot of problems that differ according to the level of severity and risk. It was evident that the communication between the person with alopecia and anyone he feels close with should be stimulated and improved.
Different design explorations combined with a concept evaluation study and a co-creative session showed the desired features for the final design. The proposed design ‘Imagine alopecia’ gives people close to someone with alopecia a better understanding of the impact of the condition and stimulates the communication between them.
The design evaluation study confirmed that the target group feels that the design has the potential to improve the communication between them and the people they feel close with. In addition, also the people close to someone with alopecia believe in the added value of the design. However, to validate the effect of the design on communication, it should be evaluated by letting people use the design in real life situations.