"PS. I Love You": Understanding the Impact of Posthumous Digital Messages
Managing Design for Life Disruptions
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Jamison-Powell, Sue
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Briggs, Pam
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Lawson, Shaun
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Linehan, Conor
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Windle, Karen
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Gross, Harriet
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.2920-2932
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: A number of digital platforms and services have recently emerged that allow
users to create posthumous forms of communication, effectively arranging for
the delivery of messages from "beyond the grave". Despite some evidence of
interest and popularity of these services, little is known about how posthumous
messages may impact the people who receive them. We present a qualitative study
that explores the type of experiences potentially triggered upon receiving such
messages. Our findings firstly suggest that posthumous messaging services have
the potential to alter the relationship between the bereaved and the deceased,
and secondly provide insight into how users make sense of this altered
relationship. Through the inference of a set of design considerations for
posthumous communication services, we reveal a number of conflicts that are not
easily solvable through technological means alone, and which may serve as
starting points for further research. Our work extends the growing body of
research that is concerned with digital interactions related to death and
dying.
