Rita Maldonado Branco, communication designer and PhD in Design, is an Assistant researcher at the Research Institute for Design Media and Culture (ID+) at the University of Aveiro, within the Health+Design Lab. Rita’s research has been mainly focused on design for health and care, in particular dementia-related design and co-design processes with people with dementia and their families. Her practice-based doctoral research focused on designing ways to support the maintenance of social relationships and communication between people with dementia and their families, while involving them as participants in the design process.

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Currently, she is the PI of a funded Exploratory Research Project DECOHDE – Design for a humanised communication of dementia: co-creation of an information platform about engaging in meaningful activities (funded by FCT), and is part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network HOMEDEM – Co-designing a home with dementia, as a co-supervisor. She is also coordinating the organisation of the 2025 edition of the international Dementia Lab Conference, to be hosted at the University of Aveiro.

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