In 2023, it’s estimated that 6.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia. As the population continues to age, it’s anticipated that the diseases will become much more common, presenting a significant need for resources to support those experiencing cognitive decline.

The Hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for long-term memory. Typically, in Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the Hippocampus retains long-term memory for the longest amount of time, sometimes even until the final stages of the disease. For someone living with Dementia or Alzheimer’s, this can include memories from childhood, family, friends, places, and significant events in that person’s life. While there is currently no cure for the disease, there are brain exercises that can be implemented to help slow down memory loss.

With Amy’s research study only a few months away, our team hit the ground running to develop Jigsawdio. The app was a ton of fun to build. From photo collages to audio manipulation, to backend NFC readers that track each puzzle and uploaded file, our work was cut out for us!

We used Core Image to build the collage of pictures for the puzzle which we always love to work with. That’s a toolkit that makes you glad you paid attention in math class, but it’s so satisfying when it all comes together. We also worked hard to make Jigsawdio a first-class app on the Mac as well as iOS. We built a new file format for our project files, integrated it with iCloud storage, added QuickLook previews and really embraced the drag and drop. All that makes Jigsawdio feel like a Mac app should, but also makes it great on iOS too. We’re really proud of the work that we did on Jigsawdio.