A saunter down memory lane: Digital reflection on personal mementos

We all collect personal mementos, treasured objects that remind us about our past. We also remember significant people and places from our past. A key way that we reflect on our identity is through collecting, organizing and talking to others about such personal mementos, places and people. However, most work on mementos has focused on physical objects rather than their digital representations. And when digital archives have been examined these have been found to be underexploited. We, therefore, implemented and evaluated a new class of digital memory application, MemoryLane, that is designed on the basis of prior research into memory and reminiscence. MemoryLane allows people to capture, actively organize and reflect on digital representations of mementos relating to people, places and objects. Users can also annotate captured mementos with spoken or textual narratives. User feedback provides new information about the nature of digital reminiscing and reflection. Our 31 persons evaluation showed that people were active in organizing and reflecting on these personal digital collections. As we expected, most mementos centered around familiar home objects, although mementos relating to people tended to be regarded as most important and to evoke stronger emotions. Participants also recorded many spoken narratives about mementos, but these spoken reflections were unpopular on playback. We discuss the theoretical and design implications of our work.

Research highlights► We present design and evaluation of a new class of digital memory application for aiding reminiscence, MemoryLane. ► Although most memories are centered around familiar home objects, mementos relating to people tended to be regarded as most important and evoked stronger emotions. ► Recording spoken narratives about mementos was preferred, but these spoken reflections were unpopular on playback.