Interactions - September/October 2010

[ 5] These directions collectively suggest clear concerns over the ethical treatment of content over time and across owners; very recently, HCI research-ers have begun to articulate the imperative to approach the design of information systems with multiple life spans in mind. For example, see Friedman, B. and Nathan, L. “Multi-Lifespan Information System Design: A Research Initiative for the HCI Community,” 2243–2246 In Proc. of CHI ’ 10. New York: ACM Press, 2010.

September + October 2010

Designing to Support
Rituals of Letting Go

Maintaining ownership of possessions left behind by departed loved ones was a clear way in which legacies persisted in the present. However, we observed several cases in which letting go of key inherited materials played highly significant roles for people in terms of honoring the departed and putting core aspects of relationships with them to rest. These rituals took on diverse forms, both physical and digital. A particularly compelling example centered on a statue sculpted by a participant’s late wife. While inside the widower’s home, it showed significant signs of weathering and decomposition. He described the degraded nature of the statue as resulting from his choice to move it outside, where it would begin to fade away, eventually finding “its final resting place.” It was clear that his choice to slowly let this possession go meaningfully reflected the shifting nature of his relationship with his departed wife.

We also encountered many instances of people retaining archives of emails or text messages received prior to a loved one’s passing, which highlighted both momentous and mundane experience with the departed; in several cases they were incorporated into rituals of remembrance and letting go. For example, one participant described being in possession of several hundred email messages from his wife, which had been down-loaded locally onto his desktop. He described reflecting on the emails from time to time, and eventually beginning to delete the messages as a way of honor-

ing his wife by moving on with his own life. However, in contrast to the nuanced form of transition illustrated in the decaying statue, the digital afforded only a crude binary representation—existence or deletion.

In contrast to the increasing movement to archive all information we produce or interact with, these instances suggest opportunities for designing interactions with digital content aimed at supporting elegant forms of interment. Whether through the gradual decay or growth of tangible patina, the physical realm appeared to support more expressive ways in which rituals of “putting to rest” were recognized and enacted. This brings up several interesting questions and opportunities for interaction designers. How might the passage of time be represented in ritualized archives of digital objects? How would we design for experiences of deletion over time? What qualities and attributes might support interactions with decaying digital objects? And how could increasingly fleeting interactions with these kinds of digital materials better support rituals of remembrance and tribute?

value over time, and how file formats and data structures will be preserved to support enduring legacies [ 5]. We highlighted a few of what will be many emerging opportunities for interaction designers to develop new ways in which digital materials signifying our most meaningful social relationships might persist, evolve— and perhaps fade away— alongside us, now and into the future.

AbOut the AuthOrs
William Odom is a Ph.D.
student in the Human-
Computer Interaction
Institute at Carnegie Mellon
Richard Banks is a senior
interaction designer at
Microsoft Research in
Cambridge, UK. A gradu-
ate of the Royal College of
interactions

Art in London, Banks spent a decade working on the interface design of a broad set of Microsoft’s products before joining the research division in 2006. Since then he has collaborated closely with Richard Harper and Abigail Sellen in the Socio-Digital Systems group, developing a wide variety of insights and solutions sur-rounding technology use in the home.

Conclusion

As we continue to accumulate rich archives of digital possessions reflective of our lives and our loved ones, the interaction design community must begin to ask what will become of these collections in the future. This brings up issues regarding the forms in which sentimental digital possessions could be made more present in our everyday lives, the design choices that might lead to their acquiring new

David Kirk is a lecturer of
HCI in the Mixed Reality
Lab at the University of
Nottingham. A psychologist
by background, he has
researched user practices
of archiving and storage of both digital and
physical artifacts in the home, in particular
the social practices surrounding photos. He
is currently extending this research to
explore the design, ethics, and human val-
ues of “technology heirlooms” designed to
outlive their owners that become imbued
with sentiment and reminiscent value.