Project overview
Timeline
2023, 5 months
Project
Solo Master Thesis
Work
Research, wireframing, prototyping, UX/UI design, user testing
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Illustrator, Dovetail
People are collecting more digital mementos than ever. However, this has created challenges in all aspects of collection, curation and interaction with them. The Re:Vive app helps users collect a more varied set of mementos that supports reminiscence in multiple ways by sending prompts, or small challenges, during the live experiences. It also automatically saves the mementos in one place, making them easier to find and more accessible. It also allows for more interactive and embodied interaction.
This app concept was developed as part of my master thesis, where I studied how digital mementos can support social interaction. You can read the report here.
Process
Challenges
Improving the experience of collection, curation and interaction
While people want to interact with their digital mementos, there are some obstacles:
• The participants faced challenges in storing and managing their digital mementos, which were scattered across various platforms and devices.
• They often had large and disorganized collections that made it overwhelming and difficult to find and access the mementos.
• Limited storage space on devices and the need to move files around posed additional obstacles.
Making creation of mementos and interaction a social experience
Digital mementos are often part of a social experience – either as an important keepsake of a shared memory, or as a way to communicate it to others. Therefore, the social aspects of digital mementos needs to be considered.
Persona
Solution
The app Re:Vive aims to facilitate meaningful collection of mementos and to enhance social interaction during and after experiences. The concept is built on four core ideas:
Influencing the live experience
Prompts or assignments are given to users during the event to encourage them to complete tasks individually or collaboratively. These prompts shape the experience and foster interaction among participants.
Creating a meaningful collection
Users are encouraged to capture a diverse range of mementos intentionally, selecting the best ones to create a curated collection. This approach simplifies storage, organization, and reduces duplicates or irrelevant files.
Enhancing storage and organization
Mementos are directly saved to a designated location, making storage and organization more convenient. By tagging people, locations, or using custom tags, users can easily find and access mementos later.
Enriching individual and social reminiscence
Interactions with the mementos provide value to individuals and facilitate both personal reflection and social reminiscence. The app offers various memento types such as photos, videos, audio recordings, notes (reflections), and music.
Events
The user creates an Event before a real-life experience starts. They add all crucial information, selects what prompts will be sent to the invited users, invites their friends and customizes the event.
Completing prompts
During the live experience, the app sends notifications - prompts - that helps the users to document the experience from their point of view. It also encourages interaction with different people.
Memories
After the live experience, the Event and its contents is moved to the Memories page. The user can browse through their collections, and interact with individual mementos in several ways - reflecting about specific moments or watching a generated a summary of the event which combines visual and auditory mementos into a video.
Evaluation
The Hi-Fi prototype was tested on six participants with the aim to understand the app’s usability and experience, and impact on individual and social reminiscence. Here are the main takeaways:
