The affinity diagram of in-depth interview

The results of in-depth interview were collated into affinity diagrams. There are five parts in this affinity diagram, including the motivations of leaving something for the loved ones, the motivations of keeping oneself, existing contents for autobiography in the daily life, concerns of this memorial object and the difficulties of preparing this memorial gift.

Table 4-1 Affinity diagram of in-depth interviews

Level 1 Level 2

(A) The motivations of leaving some objects for the loved ones

a1) Strengthening the relationship

a2) The expectations of giving a better life for the family

a3) Releasing the grief of the loved ones a4) Previous experiences of losing someone (B) The motivations of

keeping oneself

b1) Sharing personal life experiences b2) Proving the existence in the world

b3) Having a good impression in other people’s heart (C) Existing contents for

autobiography in the

c1) The record of daily life and self-expression c2) The backup of life record

34

daily life c3) Preference of using the way they communicated before

(D) Concerns of this memorial object

d1) Do not want to trouble other people d2) Worrying about the privacy

d3) Do not want to leave anything to unfamiliar people

d4) Hoping that this gift can be kept permanently (E) Difficulties of

preparing this gift

e1) Do not have time for preparing this memorial gift e2) Do not know what to leave

(A) The motivations of leaving some objects for the loved ones

In this study, it was found that what users most concerned about was not preserving themselves perfectly, but determining how to build a new link with their loved one through the items they left. Their motivations of preparing this gift are the love of their loved ones, it is highly related to the person they love. They want to express their feelings to their loved ones toward the gift, and create a new bound that last long.

a1) Strengthening the relationship

For intimate friends or family, people shared memories and expressed thankfulness, concerns, blessing or regrets to strengthen the links between each other. In order to keep an image in their loved ones’ heart, they tried to find an important element between themselves and their loved ones, the best way they chose was using the shared memory, they hoped people can remember those memories by the events they experienced before, for example, their common habits or the movie they loved can help them recall the days they hanged out together. People hope their loved ones can keep their memories; they preserved group photos with precious

35

memories instead of individual photos. When their loved ones received the relic, people hoped that their loved ones would be happy and savor their ‘reruns’.

[Quote 01] Participant 7: “ I want to give the gift to people who were close to me and will miss me."

[Quote 02] Participant 2: “I want to leave some photos for my children, they can tell stories to their children.”

They care about people who are close to them, with whom they got along, they don’t care about other people, memorial gift is only meaningful for the intimate friends. People tried to find out the important element between themselves and their loved ones in order to enhance the relationship and live in their loved ones’

heart.

[Quote 03] Participant 7: “The gift should represent the relationship between us, if possible, I want to prepare something suitable for each of them.”

a2) The expectations of giving a better life for the family

When people are leaving, they worried about their family mostly. There are two different kinds of subjects they worry about, one is their parents or mate. They try to leave some valuable objects to improve the lives of their parents and mate, showing the appreciation for the care and love. Valuable objects are the most common things they want to leave for this kind of loved ones, through these valuable objects, their family can live a better life in the future. The other kind of subject in this situation is their children. In addition to some valuable objects, people also leave something that can educate their loved ones, especially for their children, through this kind of

educational relic, they hope their children can learn something from this gift, even get some inspiration for their life.

[Quote 04] Participant 7:"I would like to leave a ring before, but now, I will leave the house because I am worried about my children’s lives.”

[Quote 05] Participant 5: "I hope to help my grandchildren developing a good moral character.”

36

a3) Releasing the grief of the loved ones

Since people want to leave with a happy ending, they also worried about the grief of their family and friends. Although they want people to keep them in mind, they still want to release the grief of their loved ones.

[Quote 06] Participant 5: “I don’t want to leave anything for my husband, it may make him sad.”

[Quote 07] Participant 6: “I will leave letters for my husband and child, I hope they can be happy and don’t be sad.”

There are several methods people tried to release the pain of their loved ones, sharing the happy memories, making jokes to create a happy atmosphere, using the voice or images to accompany with their family. Through these methods, they hope to accompany with their loved ones to get through the pain and sorrow, and try to transform the pain of loss to memorable memories.

On the other hand, people wanted to prepare an impressive relic, but they also worried about their loved ones; they were not sure if the relic could relieve the grief or extend the sadness. This is a contradiction for them, they hope to stay in the hearts of their loved ones, accompany their loved ones in hard times, and also

believe that as time goes by, people will forget about them. They do not need people to think of them every day.

[Quote 08] Participant 4:" If I died, I don’t believe they will remember me forever, time will heal."

a4) Previous experiences of losing someone

People also experienced the death of their loved one, they preserved something related to their loved ones to recall the memory and have their own way to think of the people who left. They also feel pity that they don’t have enough materials for recalling their loved ones. They also received something from those who left and they hope their child can inherit the gift. Through these experiences, they will think about leaving something to represent themselves

37

[Quote 09] Participant 2:"It’s a pity that I do not know where my father took these pictures.”

[Quote 10] Participant 5:"My mother gave me a bracelet she wore before, it made me feel a sense of heritage.”

B) The motivations of keeping oneself

In the assumption of this research, people would try to leave themselves in this world for their family and friends. In this part, it shows the behavior of keeping oneself before death.

b1) Sharing personal life experiences

There is a difference between preserving their life experience for their family and leaving themselves in a public space. They preserve their life for the future

generations to know their appearance, work and life. They also want to pass down their values and attitudes to life to their children.

[Quote 11] Participant 5:"I was a businessman starting from scratch; I want to use biographical record of these processes to make my children treasure what they have."

On the other hand, people left a brief self-introduction with personal values in order to have a positive impact for the future generations. They do not really care about other people in the world, they do not think other people will review their lives seriously; they just want to examine their experiences, pass down their values and attitudes to life and share their habits or preferences to show their personal

impressions with a brief description of who they are, to prove that they had existed in this world.

[Quote 12] Participant 5: “I want to keep the photo that I took when I was 20 years old for my future generations, let them know that I was once young.”

38

b2) Proving the existence in the world

People left something to represent their personal identity, such as profession, interest, habits, wearing and life styles. For example, one of the participants wants to leave an airplane model which he got from the army to tell people he used to be an air force soldier, through these objects, they want to show who they are, what they did before, and the most important thing in their life.

[Quote 13] Participant 2: “The stone I collected represented the footprint of the place I have been.”

[Quote 14] Participant 1: “I want to leave my personal information on a building as a commemoration, just for those who don’t know me.”

b3) Having a good impression on other people’s heart

When people are going to prepare for the final moment, they will try to leave a positive and happy image about who they are. Toward the gift or the funeral, they want to reveal a last image of themselves and the important event in their life in a warm way. Rather than feeling sad, they preferred a peaceful and memorial ending.

People can keep themselves in their loved ones’ heart, they don’t need people to keep them in mind all the time but if someday, people think about them, they hope people to think of them in a positive way.

[Quote 15] Participant 1:"If I prepare very perfectly at the end of my life, people will be touched."

[Quote 16] Participant 1: “I want a happy funeral, just like an old man who sold ice cream; he prepared ice cream for everyone who attended his funeral”

C) Existing contents for autobiography in the daily life

Some participants in the interviews used to record their life experience of daily life, such as using photos to record their lives or writing blog and diaries. These materials could also be used when preparing this gift for their loved ones; some participants also think they should prepare the gift in their daily life because it will be

meaningless if they prepared the gift particularly.

39

c1) Records of daily life and self-expression

People use different kinds of materials to take down their life. Our participants use photos, videos or diary to record their lives and preserve their memories; they believe these memorable things will be precious after dozens of years. Some people preserve some mementos when they are traveling, they also regard these objects as a record of their life experiences. These objects and content are meaningful for them to show their life experiences and their opinion.

[Quote 17] Participant 6: “I want to leave the travel that wrote by my husband, it took down my trip, my thought and my life.”

[Quote 18] Participant 7: “I used to buy some CD or books for my friend, when preparing this last present, I want to gather my favorite music for them.”

c2) Backup of life record

After people taking down more and more life experiences in their daily life, they try to back up their memory and keep it safe. They scanned their photos to digital files, but they also have a problem that they have too many photos, it is hard for them to arrange the photos in albums.

[Quote 19] Participant 7: “I want to scan the photos and save into digital files, there are too many photos.”

c3) Preference of using the way they communicated before

Since people hope this object is meaningful and they think if they prepare this memorial gift particularly in the end of their life, the gift will be meaningless. In their opinions, the memorial objects represent the relationships; they hope to show their feelings in their daily life, which are different from the feeling at the end of their life.

They hope to use the way they communicated before, just like the old days, with the same feeling of warmness.

[Quote 20] Participant 7: “I want to say something to them through this gift in different ways; it depends on the way we used before.”

40

D) Concerns of this memorial object

When people think of this memorial gift, they have different kinds of concerns of the gift. They were worried about if this memorial gift will make people think of death, is it easy for their family to preserve, or the privacy about leaving their personal

information behind.

d1) Do not want to trouble other people

Since talking about death is sensitive in Taiwan, people worried about if this gift will make people feel uncomfortable. They do not want to make others feel scared or trouble about this gift. According to their concerns, they want to make this gift warm and not reminiscent of death. On the other hand, they hope people can preserve this memorial gift for a long time, according to this concern, the memorial object should be easily preserved, they prefer something small or can be stored in some place. In their opinion, there is no need to force people to receive this memorial object, they will respect the feeling of their loved ones, it is not necessary to make people keep this gift permanently.

[Quote 21] Participant 1: “I hope this relic can be easily preserved in a private place, because people might not want put this thing in a public place.”

[Quote 22] Participant 1: “I want to make something for them to commemorate and do not think of death.”

d2) Worrying about the privacy

People still care about their privacy even after they die. They care about showing their photos or videos in public, when they are going to leave their life record in public, they hope it is simple and only showing who they are and what they did.

[Quote 23] Participant 6: “I hope the memorial object is not so public, I only want people who knew me to reach my profile.”

41

d3) Do not want to leave anything to unfamiliar people

In the opinions of the participants, they think it is unnecessary to leave anything to unfamiliar people, they believed that other people won’t take this object seriously and there is no connection with those who are not familiar with. Moreover, even if their future generations, if they never meet before, they do not have an emotional relationship between each other.

[Quote 24] Participant 7: “It is meaningless to give something to people I am not familiar with.”

d4) Hoping that this gift can be kept permanently

When they are preparing this gift, they also hope the gift can be permanent. If they preserve their memory in this gift, they hope the memory can be stored properly.

They take the memory store in this gift as a backup of their precious memory. They also think if this gift cannot preserve their memory for a long time, there is no use to prepare this gift.

[Quote 25] Participant 7: “I think valuable objects are more likely to be preserved properly.”

E) Difficulties of preparing this gift

There are some difficulties when they are preparing the gift, they have some ideas about this gift in their mind but they also complained about they are too busy to prepare this gift in their daily life. Some participants said they do not want to leave anything, they think they are normal people, they have nothing special to share.

e1) Do not have time for preparing this memorial gift

Death is an event that is unpredictable; people do not know when to prepare this memorial gift, as a result of no time schedule, people always do not have time to prepare this memorial gift.

[Quote 26] Participant 7: “Actions speak louder than words, my husband wanted to record his song, but he didn’t make it in the end.”