Different levels of self preservation

People have different levels of demand when they want to preserve themselves, at the lowest level, they wanted to leave some visual objects for people to remember, and these objects are symbols that can represent themselves and make people think of them. In the second level, People wanted to show their memories and their

interactions, these memories reminded people the days they had been together, and it also make people think about their lives before. The last level, preserving the feeling of each other was the most complicated one and also difficult to prepare, when people had a deep relationship with someone, they wanted to leave

themselves to accompany with their loved ones and show their love and feeling of parting.

As shown in Figure 5-1, the level of self preservation related to the intimacy of the relationship. For intimate subject, participants tended to leave something at level three, for normal subject or unfamiliar people, they tended to leave something at level one. The highest level of self-preservation, it is more abstract to present, like the feeling of love and the feeling of living together.

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Fig 5-1 Different levels of self preservation 5.2.1 Level one: Self images (Personal)

In the first level, the personal image is the easiest way for people to make memorial gifts, and it is the basic and safe way to preserve themselves as they want. They used photos or personal symbols to show the existence. In this level, the memorial objects are more personal, people tried to use these objects to make others think of them.

Most of the objects in this level are physical objects, such as perfume, shoes, bags, and bracelets. These objects are intimate and personal used.

Fig 5-2 Level one: Objects that preserved self images 5.2.2 Level two: Common Memory (Social)

In the last level, it was found that the participants tried to leave something they used for a long time to represent themselves; these objects are triggers to bring back the memory of the time they spent with their families. Through these objects, they wanted to evoke their memories with the loved ones. There are two kinds of objects in this kind of motivation. First, the memorial object they left is a trigger of the

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memories or events, there was no data in this kind of memorial object, they used these objects to evoke the memories, these objects are the symbols of their life experiences, and they believed this memorial object can bring the memory back to their loved ones. Second, due to the convenience of using digital media, people use many things to record their lives, such as photos, letters and diaries. When people faced with death, these memories were used as a backup of the common memory when their loved ones think of them.

In this level, what people want to leave is the interaction between their loved one, it is more abstract than the personal image, and they want to show their life, it is a continuous experience of the time they spent together before.

Fig 5-3 Level two: Objects that preserved memories 5.2.3 Level three: Feeling and love (Emotional)

The last level, they wanted to express their feelings to their loved ones, in this level, the things they want to leave is more abstract, such as their love and care for their family or the feeling of still living together. These feelings were the accumulation of the experiences in their lives; it was not only the record of some events in their life but their feeling in their everyday life. In this level, people were not sure if they can preserve their emotion properly, they had some special feeling but they had no idea about how to present these feelings, and they did not have materials to show their feelings if they did not keep their memories before.

On the other hand, they wanted their family to have a better life, they also wanted to show their greeting or care for their loved ones.

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Fig 5-4 Level three: Objects that preserved feeling and love 5.3 The relationship between age and the self preservation

There were different factors that relate to their decision when people prepared this gift. Most of the participants wanted to leave something for their loved ones, but some of our participants they did not want to leave anything, they did not think themselves important, and they had nothing special to leave to their family. They think these kinds of objects were romantic, and they just want to leave something useful for their child and hope they can have a better life.

In this research, participants who were older than 45 years old and had their family, they went through marriage, had a baby, and raised a child. In their opinions, the most important things were their life and their children, they hope their children could live well; they don’t have the ambition to preserve themselves well, all of the precious things had already kept in the mind. When people get older and having more and more life experiences, they thought they could live without regrets, there is no need to preserve everything perfectly.

[Quote 32] Participant 4: “I do not want to leave anything, I think the best way is to let them go.”

In contrast, for those participants who were young, there were many things happening in their daily life, they had lots of memories, they tried to keep the life experiences they had for their loved ones, and they tried to use different kind of materials to preserve these memories. In the results of this research, they had a greater willingness to leave something for their family or friends.

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5.4 The meaning of the preparing process

In the process of preparing the memorial gift, people tried to attach themselves to this gift; they reviewed their lives and think about their families and friends. For example, when the participants answered the questions in the workbook, they expressed their feeling of their lives; they were not only rearranging their memories but also recalling the lives. Just like making a conclusion of their lives, they tried to find out the best time in their lives. During the preparations of sharing memories, they thought about the relationships and the days they had been together with the loved ones. The behavior of help their loved ones also help themselves to go through the fear of death.

5.5 Current problem and difficulty

Sequence model was used to collate the problems when people are preparing this gift. There were three stages when people preparing this memorial object. From the beginning they had the thought to prepare this memorial gift, and they started to think about what they should prepare. In the results, they have some problem and difficulty as follow:

Fig 5-5 Sequence model of preparing the memorial gift

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5.5.1 Lack of triggers for making the relic

People were always thinking about leaving something, but never started. They also told their children what they wanted, but the children did not want to take it

seriously. They planned to record their own voice or songs, or write a series of letters for their children. They planned a lot but did not find the right time to do it.

Human behavior is motivated by the anxiety from the recognition that death is inevitable. People never know when they will face with death; they have no trigger to prepare the gift. The workbook in our research is also one kind of the reminder of death, people think about something they did not think about before.

[Quote 33] Participant 7: “Although I wanted to leave something for them, it was never done because my life is too busy.”

5.5.2 Difficulty when organizing their memories

As media technology advances in terms of storage, it is easier for people to store a variety of voice, pictures and videos. People used to collect lots of photos in their daily life, they want to use these data for the relic but it is not easy for them to organize such huge number of photos. As we mentioned before, there were three levels of self-preservations, when people wanted to organize the social and

emotional level memory, it is hard for them to use these materials to express their social interaction or feelings.

[Quote 34] Participant8:“Love and care are hidden in the daily life, it is not easy to extract the feeling into an object, I want to preserve the way we live together, it is indescribable.”

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Chapter 6 Design suggestions

After analyzing the data, design suggestions were proposed for designers when they design memorial products or services.

6.1 Design suggestions for preparation

6.1.1 Integrate the preparations into their lives

Users collected photos to record their lives and also collected souvenirs to record their trip. At the final moment, they wanted to review these memories with their loved ones but encountered difficulty when organizing their memories. We proposed that the service could help them organize the photos and also back up their photos in their daily lives, for example, when they upload the photos, they could also attach their feelings or voice and label the friends or family members. When people

prepare the relic, they can easily reorganize their memories for different people.

6.1.2 Easily create a desired atmosphere

People wanted to present their memories in a lively manner, and can make people feel warm or happy rather than sad. They wanted to play the song they like, shared the photos they love. They also hoped to merge their personality into this relic, such as their habits, lifestyle. They want to prepared a unique atmosphere with personal identities, and hope that their loved ones will have a good time at the final moment.

6.2 Design suggestions for presentation

6.2.1 Providing different modes of information presentation

People still cared about their privacy even after they die; for those they are not familiar with, they only wanted show brief information. They wanted to share their lives with their intimate friends or relatives. According to this, it was proposed that memorial services or products should provide different data filtering methods, even for their close friends and relatives.

6.2.2 Convenient for storage

People cared about if the relic could be properly preserved; they did not want to trouble their loved ones. They hope the relic could be preserved easily; if the relic is

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placed as a showpiece in their house, it should not be reminiscent of death, but of happy times.

6.2.3 Combining with souvenirs

People had different souvenirs in their life; most of these objects were related to their loved ones and could be regarded as a connection between them. If the product or service could be combined with the souvenirs, it could be more commemorative for both the users and their loved ones.

6.3 Examples

6.3.1 SweetDream

Fig 6-1 Design example 1 - SweetDream

SweetDream was a service provided users to share their photos with their friends and family; people could upload their photos and choose the music they like. It also provided physical photos for users to send to their loved ones. When people facing death, they could choose the photos that they want to preserve and upload to Sweetdream website, they could also choose a photo and print out as a memorial gift sending to their loved ones by post. At the back side of this photo, their friends or family and reach the Sweetdream website with the bar code, they can see more photos and the music that user prepared.

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6.3.2 AutoBiography

Fig 6-2 Design example 2 - AutoBiography

AutoBiography was a website provided services to help people make their digital autobiography online, it provided default layout for users to make their digital autobiography easily. People can upload their photos, music and voice record to the AutoBiography website, they can also link their social network account to import the photos or life experiences. After people upload their photos and other information, Autobiography website will produce a default layout, users can rearrange the layout and edit their life record more easily.

6.3.3 Memory Box

Fig 6-3 Design example 3 – Memory Box

Memory Box was a micro projector that combined with a meaningful object; people could preserve their photos and music in Memory box. Memory Box is designed for intimate relationship, it could project the photos with music on the wall, and helped

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people commemorate their loved ones, it also helps people to preserve their live experiences and important memorial objects.

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Chapter 7 Conclusions

In this research, through in-depth interviews and probe, the information about people’s need if they were going to prepare a memorial gift when they face to death was gained.

7.1 Conclusions of this research

People tried to leave something for their family or friends when they face to death.

In this research, it revealed that the relationships and the emotional connections between the participants and their loved ones were the most important elements in this memorial object. People prepared this memorial object to present their

concerns, blessing, appreciations and hoped to live in their loved ones’ heart. They used their life experiences to generate a link with their loved ones, their life

experience or the common memories with their friends were used as triggers to evoke the feeling of love. Existing memorial objects were also collected in this research, objects people used in their daily life were chosen as a symbol of

themselves, objects people used to do some activities were also chosen as a trigger to evoke the memories. People used objects as a reminder to remind their concern, love, and their existence.

The transformations of the relationship were also proposed in this research, there were two kinds motivation. Firstly, people used this memorial gift to extend the relationship with their loved ones. Secondly, people used this memorial gift to make an ending of their lives. Through this memorial object, people expected to change their relationship to a new form, and build a new link with their love ones.

There are three levels of self-preservation proposed in this research, with the

increase of the intimacy, what people wanted to leave were more and more abstract.

At level one, people wanted to leave something represent themselves. Those things focused on visual effect and directly represented the person who left. At level two, people wanted to preserve their memories; it focused on the social impact. At level three, people wanted to show their love and feelings; they leave something as a symbol to represent their feeling, at this level, the objects change with different intents.

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7.2 Contribution

This research proposed implications for designer to design memorial service or products; it provided the design opportunities from the perspective of people who left. Current Difficulties and the process of preparing this memorial gift were also discussed. Through this research, the opinions of different kinds of existing services were also gained, and it revealed different preference and different concerns when people chose memorial services. The opportunities of using technology to design memorial services were also proposed as some examples in this research. The research used a relaxed way to gather the data of a serious topic; it is an example of using a metaphor to discuss a serious problem.

7.3 Research Limitation

In this research, most of the participants were not really facing death; they do not have the urgency of preparing this memorial object. The result of this research was based on their imagination, it might be different if they really face to death.

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Appendix A Affinity diagram

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Appendix B Flow model

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Appendix C

mean-end chain diagram

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