Legacy
A mobile app for recording your memories and life experiences to share them with future generations.
Concept Project
Made during a UX course at "Create"
Guided by Lior Yair
Is there any way to ease our fear of death with the help of technology?
Sometimes when looking for concepts for projects I like to challenge myself with really tricky problems to solve. I find great interest in exploring the grimmest and harshest aspects of life. In this project, I asked myself: is there any way to ease our fear of death with the help of technology? Hopefully, the resulting concept is only the start of a bigger project, which can be refined into something great with the team of designers, psychologists and developers.
Research
I'm not a psychologist, yet I had to conduct basic research regarding the emotional and mental aspects of dealing with death and grief. While reading various articles on the subject, I found a theory of the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. Basically, it's a five-tier diagram known as "Maslow's pyramid of needs". Maslow pointed out that there are five basic needs for each person to feel accomplished. The "higher tier" needs can't be satisfied without the lower ones.
Those needs are:
-
Need in food and shelter
-
Feeling of safety and security
-
Relationships and feeling of belongingness
-
Accomplishments and esteem
-
Self-fulfillment
"I’ve left a mark. I’ve been recognized."
The absolute majority of people are looking for self-fulfillment for their entire life. For some it's all about building a large family, others find fulfillment in career and recognition. It's the ability to look back on your life and say “I’ve done something. I’ve left a mark. I’ve been recognized.” The thought that our life meant something, not only for us but for people close to us is the single comforting thought when we are on a deathbed. In this project, I was looking for a way to evoke those feelings.
Coping with grief and loss
This is the other side of someone passing away. Of course there is no true cure for the feelings after we lose someone, but some things may ease the emotional weight. During the first few days of grieving, most people are shocked and under heavy mental affect, even without being aware of that. Some are really sad and depressed, some tend to close themselves emotionally going on with their daily routine (like myself). There is nothing to be done at this point, except being surrounded by family or close friends.
The realization of a person missing from our life comes after a few weeks when the initial emotional shock fades away. During this phase, people tend to go through the passed person photos, various belongings, letters, and online posts in order to create some kind of connection. Creating this connection is another goal of this project.
Technology
How do I implement everything I've mentioned before and create a practical product? During the brainstorming phase, I had a few thoughts about using an AI avatar, it's a tempting thought and a way to create a groundbreaking product, but AI comes with some big challenges:
Training the AI
Creating a good AI avatar requires a huge amount of user data and development time.
Predictability
One of the biggest AI drawbacks, is being unpredictable. Take for example the Microsoft chatbot Tay. AI is designed by humans, yet it develops its own way of "thinking" and it's not always appropriate.
Authenticity
In our days, no matter how good the AI is, it will remain a "cold" program and users may feel uncomfortable in our specific case.
The rise and fall of Microsoft's Chat bot - Tay
For the reasons mentioned above, I had to look for a more appropriate and "mainstream" way to provide a solution. I chose to use voice and video recording. By "asking" questions in various topics, the app collects user's answers and saves voice and video data. There's no need for a complicated AI training and there are no predictability or authenticity issues.
Target audience
My target audience consists of four main user types:
Older adults
people aware of their respectful age and health condition.
Parents
A person that realizes his life affects directly another human being.
Professionals with a risk factor
Policemen, firefighters, soldiers, etc.
Terminally ill patients
People of any age, diagnosed with mortal disease.
All of them aspire to share their memories and life experiences, to reflect on their life’s accomplishments and pass their legacy.
In addition, there's another user type, a "user of user". Those are relatives and other people close to the diseased person. By following a link, they can access the recording archive of the main user.
UX & Design
Structure & Wireframes
I wanted to create a straight forward experience. The app has a single main screen, where users can pick a desired topic, scroll through the questions of the chosen topic, and start a recording when ready. On first use, only two questions of each topic are available. If the user is interested in a specific topic, he can unlock it and will be prompted to the payment flow.
UI Design
In UI design I mostly stayed true to my wireframes and just refined the visual appearance. A few conclusions and thoughts guided me throughout this phase:
-
I wanted the UI to be clear and focusing, so I used only a few relaxed colours and contrasting CTA's.
-
In order to achieve focus, the recording mode switches the appearance to a kind of "dark mode".
-
Various board games inspired me to display questions as "cards".
The Final Flow
Picking a Question
On first use, users are asked to answer two questions from each topic. The topic can be changed by tapping "Change". In the "Select a Topic" screen, users can choose any topic or view all it's questions. Users interested in more questions from the topic, can unlock the questions, and will be prompted to the payment flow. Changing the question will occur more frequently than changing the topic, so it's more convenient to change. Picking a question is done simply by swiping through the question cards.
Recording an Answer
"Tap to Answer" button enables the recording mode. I chose to use a dark theme in this flow to make it more distinct. The chosen question will remain on top of the screen for reference. Users can choose a video recording or only a voice recording. An animated sound wave is used as a recording indicator. If needed, the recording can be paused and resumed a few moments later. Tapping the "Stop" finishes the recoding and displays a summary, where the user can preview, save or discard it.
Playing a recording
This flow is identical for the main user and the "user of user" (family, friends, etc.). The main user can access his recordings archive from the "Your Story" screen. "User of user" needs to follow a link to the recordings archive shared by the main user.
