Interaction Design for Serendipitous Reminiscing
Project is active (PhD 2013-2018, Postdoc 2018-2019)
People reminisce to entertain themselves, to connect with others, and to increase self-awareness. Photographs have proven a great resource to support reminiscing. However, with a move towards digital capture and storage, people have more photos that end up undervalued and underused. This thesis explores how interaction design can support reminiscing in everyday life, in particular through the use of digital photos. We focus on serendipitous reminiscing: the casual recollection and reliving of past experiences, brought about by chance encounters with things that remind of one’s past. These encounters are easily afforded to physical things but not to digital photos.
Based on a diary study on involuntary reminiscing, a repertory grid study on remembering as experience, and two research-through-design studies on interactive photo displays, this thesis explores how people relate to memory cues in everyday life. We confirm that encounters with personal media and other things that remind one of one’s past are welcome, and that the value of photo displays stems from making photos present in everyday life (rather than their interactive features). The findings contribute to design research by furthering the understanding of remembering as experience and the development of several novel concepts that facilitate serendipitous reminiscing.
Videos and images
Phototype was placed in people’s homes to evaluate experiences with photo displays
Who are involved
Dr Doménique van Gennip
Researcher – UTS & TU/e
sinds1984.nl
Doménique has a background in industrial design and human-technology interaction, with degrees obtained at Eindhoven University of Technology. His Master thesis focused on the psychology of mediated affect in social communication. In June 2013 he started his PhD thesis within this project at UTS, studying the use of personal photos and the serendipity of reminiscing in everyday life. His thesis, supervised by Elise van den Hoven & Panos Markopoulos, was completed in May 2018. He continued his research on serendipitous reminiscing as a postdoctoral researcher. Currently, he a Lecturer with Design Next at UNSW.
Prof Dr Elise van den Hoven MTD
Project leader – UTS & TU/e
elisevandenhoven.com
Elise van den Hoven has a background in human-computer interaction and interaction design research and studies how to Materialise the digital in everyday environments through tangible and physical interaction. Her favourite range of application areas has to do with Memories, in particular supporting everyday human remembering activities. That is how she came up with this project and its name: Materialising Memories. Elise is professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design of the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. In addition, she is associate investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders and honorary senior research fellow at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee.
Prof Dr Panos Markopoulos
Promoting professor – TU/e & UTS
idemployee.id.tue.nl/p.markopoulos
Panos Markopoulos studied electrical engineering and computer science in the National Technical University of Athens and human-computer interaction in Queen Mary University of London. He is currently a professor in the Department of Industrial Design of the Eindhoven University of Technology on the topic of Design for Behaviour Change. His interests extend in several areas of the fields of human-computer interaction and interaction design such as model-based design, privacy and trust, social games for children, evaluation methodology for children, connectedness between family and friends, persuasive technologies, and healthcare.
Location
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Materialising Memories group
Faculty of Engineering and IT
University of Technology Sydney
Building 11, Level 7, Room 217
81-115 Broadway (postal address: PO Box 123)
Broadway NSW 2007
Australia