UW Medicine / Handcrank Films
Preserving memories through a conversation game
By Genevieve Wanucha
Two people sit in the Memory Hub atrium, enjoying a lively conversation, gesturing, and laughing. You would think they were old friends. In fact, they had just met ten minutes ago. They are talking about their childhood homes, prompted by a question from a card game called Life’s Tapestry.
Life’s Tapestry, designed by Ann Mathew for her master’s thesis in the UW School of Design, is a prompt card game meant to create meaningful interactions between two people. The box opens to reveal a set of question cards. Quirky ice breaker questions help dissolve any tension or nerves. Other categories of questions aim to trigger life memories and get players talking about various aspects of their past.
While this game can be enjoyed by anyone, it is intended to improve social interactions for people living with early-stage dementia and their friends and family members. Life’s Tapestry is designed to address the sense of personhood for people living with early-stage dementia.
“Our sense of self is essentially formed by the many stories of our lives,” says Mathew. “And the more we talk about these stories, the more they are cemented in our brains. The purpose of Life’s Tapestry is to get people to reminisce and talk more about their lives. People with dementia have lived life longer than most of us have, and they have memories that we can learn from and help preserve.”
Currently, an estimated 6.9 million people in the United States live with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, and research suggests that half of these affected individuals have mild rather than moderate or severe cases. Without an effective drug to prevent dementia, non-pharmacological and social interventions are crucial for improving wellbeing, especially at a time when social interaction may be growing more challenging.
Mathew first piloted her game with people living with memory loss and their partners at the Memory Hub community center, along with volunteers from younger generations. “The live feedback from people after the pilot was really, really special,” she said. A woman said that she had learned something about her husband of 50 years that she had not known before, as some of the questions triggered memories from his childhood that they had never spoken about. Others commented that they hadn’t realized how much time had gone by.
Pilot of the game concept at the Memory Hub
With her background in Visual Communication Design, Mathew had the right tools to tailor the design of the cards to be accessible and inclusive of people living with early dementia. She focused on the cards’ size, feel, and colors to the positioning of the words on the cards.
Mathew’s time volunteering at the Memory Hub had a profound influence on the card game’s development. “I think the greatest thing I’ve gotten from the Memory Hub is the beautiful conversations I’ve had with people. That became the foundation of my project, a driving force.”
Even the name of the game, Life’s Tapestry, was inspired by her experience at the Memory Hub. During the Memory Hub’s Open House in the fall of 2023, Mathew helped coordinate a community weaving project. People chose scraps of different fabrics and ribbons and wove them through the strings of a large loom. The finished tapestry, now hanging at the Memory Hub, reflects the work of an entire community. “Memory is not just a singular thread,” says Mathew. “Memory is like a tapestry, where each of our memories is interwoven with other people’s memories to create our life stories.”
