We worked with Alzheimer Scotland to create a free app that helps keep vulnerable people with dementia safe. Having previously reached a milestone of over 10,000 downloads, Alzheimer Scotland worked closely alongside Add Jam to develop a brand new version of their app, undertaking a major design and functionality upgrade.
The primary purpose of the app is to help find a person with dementia should they get lost. In the new version, we’ve also added new personalisation features that help serve tailored content to users depending on their location and use of the app.
This app was built based on the Police Scotland standard Herbert Protocol, which is used to find missing persons. Users of the app can create profiles as “community members” or “carers”, with carers being given the opportunity to create a “person with dementia” profile for people in their care. Should a person with dementia go missing, their carer can raise a Purple Alert that will alert community members in the vicinity of their last seen location via a push notification. The aim of this is to create a community who can assist carers and police with finding the missing person.
We worked alongside Alzheimer Scotland staff and volunteers, Police Scotland, carers and other stakeholders to ensure the app was fit for purpose and could appropriately serve the users. Using our sprint-based approach, we designed an initial prototype for the app in Figma which we were then able to present to stakeholders for feedback. From here, we moved onto the development of the app, utilising a Rails backend to create a React Native mobile app for both iOS and Android.
Working in sprints gave us the flexibility to adapt to the evolving situation with Coronavirus, allowing us to react as needed and add new features relevant to the impact of Covid-19. These included an amenities and services map, alongside a community section which contained notice boards and health-based walk information.
