that having poor access is likely not a
general explanation. Other researchers
have argued that new access tools (such
as desktop search) will facilitate exploitation of digital archives. 21 However,
research at the University of Sheffield
in 2008 on desktop search suggests it
is used only infrequently. More important, there is no consistent evidence
that improving the quality of search
leads to increased use of search tools. 3
These results indicate that desktop
search is not a “silver bullet” leading to
effective access to and exploitation of
our personal digital archives.
In general, these findings imply that
archival data may be less valuable than
the considerable effort expended on
these systems would justify.
Design Principles
How can we prevent creating under-used infrastructures or only proof-of-concept demonstrators? Needed is
a new conceptual framework that is
better focused on the functions lifelogging technologies could serve. Despite the memory terminology used
in lifelogging work, little attention
seems to focus on human memory and
how it operates. Psychological studies
of memory are largely ignored, even
though they provide relevant concepts
and results that lead directly to new
design principles:
Strategically targeting the weaknesses
of human memory. Total-capture systems are indiscriminate, assuming that
all kinds of data are equally valuable
and the more data the better. The argument often goes that we should capture
“as much as we can” because we never
know what we might need to remember in the future. But this ”just-in-case”
principle has two weaknesses: First,
we can never capture absolutely everything, so choices must indeed be made
when designing and building systems;
for example, different kinds of data require different kinds of sensors or capture devices, adding complexity for the
people using and building the systems.
Second, capturing vast arrays of data
might overwhelm end users maintaining and retrieving valuable information
from large archives; it also ignores the
burden huge amounts of data impose
on system designers and developers.
Previous research provides future
guidance; for example, psychology re-
collections of digital
data can serve
as cues to trigger
autobiographical
memory about
past events but are
not memories in
themselves.
search provides a deeper understanding of the most frequent and critical
kinds of memory problems people have,
allowing system designers to focus on
areas of true value to users. This means
that, rather than the overambitious
goal of “logging everything,” creators
of lifelogging systems would be better
off directing their efforts at the kinds
of data people find most valuable and
the issues they find most problematic.
In addition to the problem of the transience of memory (implicitly addressed
by much lifelogging technology), people
are subject to myriad other distortions
and inaccuracies in memory (such as
absentmindedness, blocking, misat-tribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence). 22 And while almost all lifelogging applications focus on supporting
people’s past (retrospective) memory,
strong evidence indicates that people
have greater difficulty remembering
what they intend to do in the future
(prospective memory). 24 Other memory
studies have identified specific groups
(such as Alzheimer’s patients and aging
populations) with debilitating memory
conditions and demonstrated how
visual-recording technologies (such as
SenseCam) can be of help. 4
Not “capturing experience” but designing effective retrieval cues. The language
used by lifelog proponents sometimes
conflates cueing with experiential capture. This distinction may seem obvious but is worth restating. Collections
of digital data (such as sets of digital
photos and sounds) can serve as cues
to trigger autobiographical memory
about past events but are not memories in themselves or in any way facsimiles of personal experience. Following
this principle, we are thus better able
to address the precise mechanisms by
which cues help memory. For example,
metadata can help cue retrieval of lost
files by, say, providing contextual information about who wrote a document
and when it was written. Alternatively,
information in the digital archive may
itself serve to cue a forgotten memory
(such as when a stored digital photo
prompts reminiscence about a previously forgotten incident).
There is again highly relevant psychology research detailing how different cues (such as time, place, people,
and events) trigger autobiographical
memories, suggesting (in contrast to
