Matters of life and death

Abstract

Examining developmental periods of the human lifespan has been a useful tradition for focusing HCI research (e.g., technologies for children or the elderly). In this paper, we identify the end of life as another period of the human lifespan that merits consideration by technology designers and researchers. This paper maps out current and future research in HCI at the end of life by first describing how this area raises questions concerning materiality and artifacts, social identities, temporality and methodologies. Having provided a description of the richness of this area, we then frame it against HCI traditions and practices in an orientation we term the lifespan-oriented approach. This paper maps early efforts in end of life research, structures and suggests areas for continued work, and situates the end of life among existing areas of HCI research.

A Survey of the Trajectories Conceptual Framework

“…In this category, we also include a paper that suggests trajectories could be used "as a metric for evaluating […] experiences" [47] and five [30,43,73,79,83] who map trajectories to descriptions that are grounded in hypothetical accounts of experiences than user studies.…”

“…These suggestions are offered in the late stages of papers, generally in the "discussion" section, and follow either user-centered studies (10 papers [34,41,43,54,55,57,60,79,82,86]), surveys of existing systems [40] or theoretical works [30,49,67,73]. Arguments leading to such suggestions include:…”

Social Network Users’ Religiosity and the Design of Post Mortem Aspects

“…Particularly [16] have been doing research on HCI and the end of life in a lifespan-oriented approach. Other researchers, such as [3], investigate users´ behavior in social networks, based on their posts to dead people.…”

“…Proposing some useful guidelines for the development of systems that consider the possibility of digital mourning, [16] mentioned the importance of permitting the bereaved to control and choose their death-related symbols, determined in part by their belief systems, taboos and religious diversity. These authors also warn that some mourning symbols are extremely private, while others are meant to be publicly viewed.…”

“…This shows an indirect desire to remain interacting with the alive, even if posthumously, possibly because the lack of religion reduced incidental taboos that might prevent this kind of interaction. When presenting some design solutions that support similar users´ decisions, [16] affirm that "we can consider how systems might empower people who have died to maintain a digital identity that preserves their integrity and desires in this life; or, to deliver messages for loved ones into the future. "…”