Hackathons in Designing Robotic Technology in Dementia Care - Navigating Needs and Relations

Designing for dementia care is challenging due to its complexity, relational nature, and diverse needs. Meaningful design outcomes require bridging a deep understanding of dementia care and the experiences of people with dementia with technological possibilities and constraints. This paper explores hackathons for facilitating such translations in the design of robotic technologies. We conducted two hackathons - one with researchers and care professionals, and another with HCI Master’s students - integrating ethnographic insights, theoretical framings, first-hand experiences, and designerly knowledge. Participants' reflections highlight how the format fostered open-ended exploration, interdisciplinary collaboration, and mutual learning through tailored inspiration materials and structured design processes. Evaluating the concepts using Kitwood’s framework of person-centred care needs, we find that the hackathons generated meaningful concepts for human and non-human care relations. However, the outcomes also surface ethical considerations related to these relations, emphasising the need for further participatory design processes to refine and situate the outcomes.