Understanding and Co-designing Photo-based Reminiscence with Older Adults

TL;DR

This paper provides an in-depth, empirical understanding of technology-mediated, photo-based reminiscence among older adults and proposes design implications to make future reminiscence technologies more accessible and empowering for older adults.

Abstract

Reminiscence, the act of revisiting past memories, is crucial for self-reflection and social interaction, significantly enhancing psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and self-identity among older adults. In HCI and CSCW, there is growing interest in leveraging technology to support reminiscence for older adults. However, understanding how older adults actively use technologies for realistic and practical reminiscence in their daily lives remains limited. This paper addresses this gap by providing an in-depth, empirical understanding of technology-mediated, photo-based reminiscence among older adults. Through a two-part study involving 20 older adults, we conducted semi-structured interviews and co-design sessions to explore their use and vision of digital technologies for photo-based reminiscence activities. Based on these insights, we propose design implications to make future reminiscence technologies more accessible and empowering for older adults.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: In our participatory design sessions, we used 11 discussion cards, categorized into four groups: 1) Memory Annotation Modalities (text in the voice input and "Description" box: "This photo was taken in xx, the people in it are xxx, the place is xxx, xx happened, my feelings are xxx, and the last time I shared it was xx time ..."), 2) Person-Centered Annotation and Display, 3) Digital Photo Album Designs, and 4) Memory Recall Aids. We have obtained the permissions to use personal black and white photos featured in the cards.
• Figure 2: Photo captured during the user study with two participants
• Figure 3: The overview of older adults' photo activities and their usage of digital tools as elaborated in Section 4.2. On the left side, the PhotoUse Framework broekhuijsen_photowork_2017 outlines four general photo-related activities and their specific categories. On the right side, we indicate which digital tools participants used for each activity, marked with an "x." For each activity, under "Older adults' activities", we provide specific examples mentioned in Section 4.2.
• Figure 4: P16 demonstrated the photo editing app she uses for manual restoration. Despite the "magic remove object" feature, the multitude of small black dots around the person made the restoration challenging.
• Figure 5: Examples of annotating efforts: P13 labels names on the back of a group photo during memory fading, with highlighted spaces for forgotten names (left); P15 digitized some old photos for storage in the digital photo album within a social media app, adding descriptive text annotations (right).