Designing for Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project: Virtual Reality-informed Design Development and Evaluation Data, 2022-2023

Bowes, Alison and Quirke, Martin and Copland, Fiona and Pemble, Catherine (2025). Designing for Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project: Virtual Reality-informed Design Development and Evaluation Data, 2022-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857785

As we age, many of us will experience cognitive changes, and for some of us, these will develop into dementia. We know that people's homes can make the experience of cognitive changes more difficult, or can enable continuing inclusion and sense of self-worth and self-esteem. DesHCA worked with people experiencing ageing and cognitive change and those who design and develop housing. DesHCA identified housing innovations that can support living better for longer with cognitive change. Our emphasis on healthy cognitive ageing goes beyond narrow conceptions of 'dementia-friendly design' into a more expansive and inclusive approach to housing innovation.

The multidisciplinary DesHCA team involved stakeholders from all areas of housing provision, including people experiencing ageing and cognitive change, architects and designers, housing experts, planners, builders and housing providers. Older people were integral to DesHCA and their health was at its heart. The project designed homes that act as demonstrators and test-beds for innovations to support healthy cognitive ageing. These designs have been developed and evaluated from stakeholder points of view, then considered at a larger scale to examine their real-world feasibility. DesHCA is feeding directly into the UK and Scottish Government City Region Deal for Central Scotland (Stirling and Clackmannanshire), providing groundwork for local housing developments. The focus of this is sustainable, lifetime health, community and economic development, addressing deprivation and inequality.

To achieve these aims, DesHCA took a co-production approach, with the whole team working to identify innovations that engage with their real-world experiences and aspirations. We used a range of data collection methods and produced analyses informed the design of the demonstrator houses. These designs evolved as stakeholders interacted with them and provided feedback from their different points of view. To collect data, we asked older people to map and evaluate their own homes and to experience and comment on new design features using virtual reality (VR). They then collaborated with builders, architects and housing providers in VR workshops to identify practical, realistic and affordable designs that can support healthy cognitive ageing, and therefore longer healthy, independent life. Partners came together in interactive workshops to convert designs into plans within a fictional town, building and retrofitting homes, creating services and managing budgets. We demonstrated how designs can work out in the real world, and how to bring together the various interests involved. Throughout, issues of costs were considered, to inform business planning and help make decisions on implementation of the new designs.

The impact of DesHCA is achieved through showing what works in housing design for healthy cognitive ageing. Immediately, DesHCA will feed into the City Region Deal and longer term we will provide tools for future developers to inform their decisions about housing for healthy cognitive ageing. Throughout the project, disseminate findings were distributed to the housing, architecture and building sectors through stakeholder networks. We have published rigorous research findings to provide a peer reviewed, high quality research base for innovation. Thus the project goes beyond recommendations and guidance to provide evidence to support delivery at scale, grounded in the co-production approach that draws on the real experience, interests and imperatives that drive different stakeholders.

DesHCA's multidisciplinary team built capacity among early career researchers in research leadership, working across disciplines such as architecture and planning, economics, sociology and across sectors with a range of different industrial and professional stakeholders, such as housing workers, planners and construction companies.

Data description (abstract)

The virtual-reality design aimed to produce a home design that would be acceptable to both older people and housing professionals, would provide cognitive, sensory and physical support, and would be deliverable at scale. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and through advertisement via project partners and collaborators.

Over three rounds of VR supported co-design workshops, taking place between May 2022, and July 2023, n=94 participants contributed to the iterative design of two VR-based prototype homes designs (the Stirling, a one storey home, and the Dunblane, a two storey home). Participants comprised n=48 housing related professionals (including Architects, builders, housing, and planning managers), and n=46 older people, aged 55 years or more. The complete process involved a total of 13 co-design workshops, comprising an average of 8.6 participants per workshop (range 1 to 12).

The first two rounds of co-design (in work package 3), comprising six workshops, followed the same two-stage format. After an introduction to the project as a group, individual participants experienced the virtual home designs whilst supported on a one-to-one basis by researchers. Most participants from these rounds experienced design immersion using a VR headset. One participant, who was unable to travel, took part from home using a remote VR protocol developed during a previous research project by members of the present team. Two further participants chose to view the designs using a web-based 3D viewer on a tablet computer. Conversations that took place during the workshops were voice recorded, for subsequent analysis.
Workshop voice recordings totaled over 40 hours of verbal commentary from individuals as they explored the designs, and over 15 hours of audio from conversations with facilitated groups of participants who had experienced the prototype home designs.
Whilst facilitating the VR experiences, researchers encouraged the participants to provide critique on the designs based on their own needs and preferences. Leading with prompts to the participants about the suitability of each design as a home for their ‘future self’ researchers then used conversational cognitive interview techniques aimed at uncovering the basis of participants' design comments. In many cases, this helped researchers distinguish between the most valuable comments; based on participants' personal needs, preferences, and experiences; versus those based on response bias, othering, or age-related stereotyping. For consistency, the researchers provided similar prompts to all participants, irrespective of their participant status as ‘older person’ or ‘housing professional.’

Immediately following their VR experience, the participants and researchers took part in a loosely structured group conversation, with discussion points covering their VR experience, and the potential role for the method in industry, as well as broader reflections on the prototype designs.

In the third (final) round (in work package 5), (n=49) participants joined (n=6) group design reviews. At this stage, the group discussions also covered wider issues of scalability of the designs.

Technology and Software
The home designs were modelled in 3d Studio Max, then imported to Unreal Engine where materials, lighting, and user movement parameters were set. This was in turn exported and side loaded onto Meta Oculus 2 VR headsets. Views from each space of both home designs were also exported to web-based VR viewer, enabling designs to be accessed via tablet computer or smartphone.

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