Assessing Support for Mortality: An Environmental Scan of Online Platforms

Though online platforms have begun to include support for end-of-life needs, their development has been piecemeal and varies from platform to platform. Recent social computing research has examined end-of-life support on social media platforms and platforms specifically designed for grief and remembrance. However, understanding the functional end-of-life support provided by a wider array of platforms is needed to identify the most urgent design priorities beyond social media and remembrance-specific platforms. In this study, we conduct a large-scale, multi-platform analysis of existing end-of-life support, summarizing the current state and identifying gaps. This study helps identify priorities to guide platform design and future research by identifying the current state of existing end-of-life support and gaps in that support.