Switch2Move lets people with dementia do music-supported movement sessions at home through a tangible controller. In practice informal caregivers must remind them, and the system goes unused.

For the warm-technology startup Aumens I redesigned the controller: a conversational avatar that helps you start a session by simply talking. Tempo, location, standing or sitting, all chosen through conversation instead of menus. Three research-through-design loops shaped it, analysed through self-determination theory. The avatar is deliberately a simple caricature of Switch2Move’s founder. Serious, human, never patronising, with a warm voice.

I tested it with ten people with dementia at care organisation De Wever. Nearly every participant could start a session autonomously. The strongest moments were not the exercises itself, people moved freely to music they loved, and they spontaneously shared memories and life stories. That finding redirected my FMP.