Digital Legacy Systems for Young Adults: Emphasizing Relationship-Oriented Perspectives and Physical Artifacts in Death Preparation

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems and Challenges: Current technologies and research on "death preparation" and "digital legacy management" primarily focus on elderly individuals or terminally ill patients, neglecting the needs of younger people. Existing digital legacy systems overly rely on digital formats (e.g., digital account management) or asset-oriented legacy planning, with limited attention to emotional dimensions and interpersonal relationships. Additionally, younger individuals are more likely to experience anxiety about death-related topics, leading to avoidance of proactive death preparation.
• Significance: Although young people (ages 19-34) generally do not perceive death as an imminent issue, they still face the possibility of accidental death. Addressing young people's death preparation not only contributes to positive psychological development in facing mortality but also has the potential to improve their health habits, foster existential reflection, and strengthen relationships with loved ones.
• Research Motivation and Related Work: Current death-related technologies predominantly serve older users, while younger individuals are more concerned with reducing emotional burdens on family members and finding ways to preserve and commemorate themselves—needs that are often underexplored. Furthermore, the HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) field has made initial explorations into digital legacy creation and its emotional connections, but lacks designs targeting younger users.

Proposed Solution

• Methods or Solutions:

  1. Utilizing Cultural Probes, Design Workbooks, and high-fidelity prototype testing, three "digital legacy planning systems" tailored for younger users were proposed.
  2. Emphasizing emotion-driven legacy planning, highlighting interpersonal relationships and the importance of physical media (e.g., letters or photos).
  3. Combining digital systems with physical interactions to explore hybrid forms of digital and physical legacy planning.

• Innovations:

  1. Breaking traditional age-oriented norms by "de-normalizing" and positioning young people as a key user group for digital legacy planning.
  2. Integrating death-related topics with existential reflection, encouraging users to actively appreciate the beauty of life through design.
  3. Introducing a hybrid theory of "cross-digital and physical legacy," emphasizing tactile and concrete experiences in legacy planning.
  4. Exploring system interactions "post-user death" (Post-userism), redefining the role of technology in the absence of users.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  1. Phase 1: Cultural Probe - Distributing task packages (e.g., creating a bucket list, selecting meaningful photos) to guide participants in reflecting on the goals and priorities of death preparation.
  2. Phase 2: Design Workbook - Proposing three system concepts:
     • My Life in Exhibition: Creating personal digital exhibitions through VR to commemorate the precious moments of the deceased.
     • Final Date: Using interactive tasks involving posthumous messages to encourage loved ones to complete specific experiences (e.g., visiting meaningful locations).
     • Letter Across Time: Materializing photos and letters from mobile albums into physical packages for mailing.
  3. Phase 3: User Testing - Conducting high-fidelity prototype testing of "Letter Across Time," focusing on participants' understanding of the interaction between digital and physical legacies.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  1. Young people tend to make legacy choices that reduce emotional burdens on loved ones, emphasizing more private and personalized communication methods.
  2. "Letter Across Time" emerged as the most popular concept, validating the efficiency advantages of digital technologies alongside the importance of sincere experiences offered by physical legacies.
  3. Users exhibited caution toward the burden of presenting death and frequent interactions in legacy planning, preferring occasional reminders or context-aware triggers for updates.
  4. Photos proved to be an effective starting point for planning, leveraging their embedded meanings to inspire user reflection and content creation.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Compared to purely digital legacy planning tools, the proposed systems integrate physical media such as letters and photos, offering deeper tactile and emotional experiences.
  • Incorporating existential philosophy redefines legacy planning as a process that encourages reflection and appreciation of the present, rather than merely a passive preparation for death.
  • The hybrid design approach combining digital and physical elements better aligns with users' cultural backgrounds and emotional needs.

• Experiment and Evaluation Results:

  1. Young users generally felt that the legacy planning process helped them discover and cherish their current lives and relationships.
  2. The "Letter Across Time" concept was highly appreciated for its emphasis on privacy, simplicity, and the functionality of providing physical media.
  3. Users responded positively to the system's continuous update feature, highlighting the importance of long-term interaction design.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations: (1) The research and testing were confined to a South Korean context, which may not directly apply to other cultural environments; (2) The study did not explore effective ways to balance frequent reminders with users' emotional burdens.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Expanding research to other cultural and age groups to explore more diverse death preparation needs.
    2. Investigating long-term user interactions and AI-based context-aware reminder functionalities to enhance the relevance of legacy planning systems.
    3. Exploring more complex intersections between physical and digital legacies to optimize user experience and emotional connections.

By leveraging existential perspectives, hybrid digital-physical design, and discussions on the unique emotional needs of young users, this study advances the understanding of death-related technologies within the HCI field. It provides valuable insights for designing death preparation technologies across diverse cultures and age groups in the future.