Memory probes:Exploring retrospective user experience through traces of use on cherished objects

Our daily interactions with objects can not only leave traces of use on the objects but also leave memories in our minds. These human traces on objects are potential cues that can trigger our autobiographical memories and connect us to social networks. The first aim of this paper is to demonstrate what might be a suitable method of inquiry into the way materials can enrich dialogues about remembered experiences derived from human traces left on cherished possessions. The second aim is to investigate how the accumulation of human traces on objects influences people’s remembering and usage. The design of our research artifacts, Memory Probes, was situated in relation to three spectra of paired values: (1) the familiarity and strangeness of tool use, (2) the definiteness and ambiguity of data capture, and (3) the objective and subjective reality of interpretation. Our field study revealed a transactive nature between traces of interaction with possessions and memories in the owners’ minds. It also informed us of how gradual and curiosity-driven understanding could become a methodological nuance when we are empathetically engaged in a collaborative way of knowing with other participants. To conclude, several implications for designing products that can participate in our everyday reminiscing and meaning-making are proposed

Balance, cogito and dott:Exploring media modalities for everyday-life reflection

Reflection in and on everyday life can provide selfinsight, increase gratitude and have a positive effect on well-being. To integrate reflection in everyday life, media technologies can provide support. In this paper, we explore how both media creation & use in different modalities can support reflection. We present the ongoing work of designing and building Balance, Cogito, and Dott, focusing on media in audible, textual and visual form. We discuss our research-Through-design process and address the differences between modalities in terms of interaction, tangibility, and the integration in everyday life

Designing objects with meaningful associations

Objects often become cherished for their ties to beliefs, experiences, memories, people, places or values that are significant to their owner. These ties can reflect the ways in which we as humans use objects to characterise, communicate and develop our sense of self. This paper outlines our approach to applying product attachment theory to design practices. We created six artefacts that were inspired by interviews conducted with three individuals who discussed details of their life stories. We then evaluated the associations that came to mind for our participants when interacting with these newly designed artefacts to determine whether these links brought meaning to them. Our findings highlight the potential of design to bring emotional value to products by embodying significant aspects of a person’s self-identity. To do so, designers must consider both the importance and authenticity of the associations formed between an object and an individual

Digital Decoupling and Disentangling:Towards Design for Romantic Break Up

\u3cp\u3eRomantic relationships are often facilitated through digital technologies, such as social networking sites and communication services. They are also facilitated through 'digital possessions', such as messages sent to mobile devices and photos shared through social media. When individuals break up, digitally disconnecting can be facilitated by using those digital technologies and managing or curating these digital possessions. This research explores the break up stories of 13 individuals aged between 18 and 52. The aim of this work is to inform the design of systems focused on supporting individuals to decouple and disentangle digitally in the wake of a break up. Four areas of interest emerged from the data: communication, using digital possessions, managing digital possessions, and experiences of technology. Opportunities for design were identified in decoupling and disentangling, and designing around guilt. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).\u3c/p\u3

Digital Possessions After a Romantic Break Up

© 2016 ACM. With technology becoming more pervasive in everyday life, it is common for individuals to use digital media to support the enactment and maintenance of romantic relationships. Partners in a relationship may create digital possessions frequently. However, after a relationship ends, individuals typically seek to disconnect from their ex-partner. This becomes difficult due to the partners' interwoven digital presence and digital possessions. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study exploring individuals' experiences of relationship break up in a digital context, and discuss their attitudes towards digital possessions from those relationships. Five main themes emerged: digital possessions that sustain relationships, comparing before and after, tainted digital possessions, digital possessions and invasions of privacy, involved and emotional reminiscing. Design opportunities were identified in managing attitudes towards digital possessions, disconnecting and reconnecting, and encouraging awareness of digital possessions

Design directions for media-supported collocated remembering practices

Since the widespread adoption of digital photography, people create many digital photos, often with the intention to use them for shared remembering. Practices around digital photography have changed along with advances in media sharing technologies such as smartphones, social media, and mobile connectivity. Although much research was done at the start of digital photography, commercially available tools for media-supported shared remembering still have many limitations. The objective of our research is to explore spatial and material design directions to better support the use of personal photos for collocated shared remembering. In this paper, we present seven design requirements that resulted from a redesign workshop with fifteen participants, and four design concepts (two spatial, two material) that we developed based on those requirements. By reflecting on the requirements and designs we conclude with challenges for interaction designers to support collocated remembering practices

Introduction:Mortality in Design

Digital design for mortals. Precisely what is unsettling about modern technological construction is that, instead of holding together earth and sky, mortals and divinities, it penetrates the earth to extract resources, pushes beyond the sky with rockets and satellites, attempts to suppress mortality with medicine and drugs, and precisely in this attempt to control the body, rejects the art of dying, and thereby and in the very process the remembering of the divinities that is the most intimate part of human suffering. More than ten years old now, Carl Mitcham’s reflection on the performance of vernacular architecture (the building of his own house in fact) is a powerful statement about the tendency of modern technology to suppress human mortality and with it the expression of the human spirit. Precisely what is unsettling about modern technological construction is that, instead of holding together earth and sky, mortals and divinities, it penetrates the earth to extract resources, pushes beyond the sky with rockets and satellites, attempts to suppress mortality with medicine and drugs, and precisely in this attempt to control the body, rejects the art of dying, and thereby and in the very process the remembering of the divinities that is the most intimate part of human suffering

Where fashion, jewellery and wearable technology meet

In this article we relate the fields of fashion, jewellery and wearable technology in terms of the emphasis on respectively social, personal and instrumental values. Moreover, we describe how the subfields of soft wearables, digital jewellery and fashion jewellery emerge on the intersections of these fields. The main contribution of the article is twofold. Firstly, we identify and explore the potential of the area at the cross-section of all three fields, which is so far hardly explored by academia. We discuss what it takes from design-researchers in the field of digital jewellery to explore the newly identified design space: broadening their frame of reference and changing their approach of wearable technology. We suggest to broaden the frame of references from Art Jewellery to jewellery in general. And, we advocate a shift in the perspective on wearable technology, from criticizing what it lacks to appreciating its merits. Within wearable technology, we find technological-sturdy artefacts, which can be used in a cultural probe in order to explore emergent behaviour, interactions and appreciation. Secondly, we argue that this overview should not be misunderstood as static and over-simplified. On the one hand, we need to be aware of the heterogeneity of each of the fields. On the other hand, we like to stress the relativity of the differences between the fields. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of looking at the overview on different levels of detail, cherishing and challenging both similarities and differences of fashion, jewellery, wearable technology, in order to explore the full potential of these three fields and all possible intersections