User research on the experience of aging and prized possessions
How do we decide what to keep and what to toss? This question was at the heart of this project. For six weeks, my research team and I dug into understanding the aging process, particularly how our relationship to "things" changes as we age.
Our collection of stories around objects started long before we realized it. We began our research by focusing on how the aging transition was affected by emotions, particularly around family relationships. We interviewed several adults who had recently helped their parents transition from independent to dependent living. For many people, this process involved downsizing and moving.
We gathered rich interviews about emotions and family, but mixed into these stories were family heirlooms and prized possessions. We couldn’t name it, but there was something about these objects that just felt important. So we stopped and asked: what's up with objects?
We needed to learn more about these objects, so we drew from the best of our childhood experience and created a “show and tell” event for the elderly. This event needed to be welcoming and enjoyable for them, but informative and structured for our research. So we created an event for elderly to showcase and share their most beloved and prized possessions. We decided to host this show and tell experience for seniors living at the Tradition, an independent living facility in Dallas. Residents we asked to "bring their treasure" and plan to chat about it.
Our research showed something separated the ordinary objects from the prized possessions in people’s lives. The physical nature of these objects captures something that people can no longer hold any other way. We discovered tat object physically accessed moments that can no longer be physically accessed.
We gathered over 40 stories from residents, including handwritten cards that served as descriptions of their objects and their stories. Some stories were delightful; others were painfully tragic, and the most moving ones were both. By the end of our research, my team and I discovered that each of these objects shared a common criteria that made them special to the owner.
Relationship
Prized possessions make a connection to a person or a group of people. They represent a relationship that may or may not be present still.
Past time
Prized possessions have a connection to past time, a memory or moment from your life.
Subjective value
Prized possessions create some kind of emotional imprint. The object evokes feelings when looked at or talked about, which create value to even the most monetarily valueless items.
We created our show and tell experience as a research method to collect stories around objects, but we also accidentally created a powerful emotional experience for seniors. The emotional experience of sharing fulfilled a need for these seniors to be heard, to feel connected, in a stage of life where they are often overlooked.
How do we decide what to keep and what to toss? This question was at the heart of this project. For six weeks, my research team and I dug into understanding the aging process, particularly how our relationship to "things" changes as we age.
Our collection of stories around objects started long before we realized it. We began our research by focusing on how the aging transition was affected by emotions, particularly around family relationships. We interviewed several adults who had recently helped their parents transition from independent to dependent living. For many people, this process involved downsizing and moving.
We gathered rich interviews about emotions and family, but mixed into these stories were family heirlooms and prized possessions. We couldn’t name it, but there was something about these objects that just felt important. So we stopped and asked: what's up with objects?
We needed to learn more about these objects, so we drew from the best of our childhood experience and created a “show and tell” event for the elderly. This event needed to be welcoming and enjoyable for them, but informative and structured for our research. So we created an event for elderly to showcase and share their most beloved and prized possessions. We decided to host this show and tell experience for seniors living at the Tradition, an independent living facility in Dallas. Residents we asked to "bring their treasure" and plan to chat about it.
Our research showed something separated the ordinary objects from the prized possessions in people’s lives. The physical nature of these objects captures something that people can no longer hold any other way. We discovered tat object physically accessed moments that can no longer be physically accessed.
We gathered over 40 stories from residents, including handwritten cards that served as descriptions of their objects and their stories. Some stories were delightful; others were painfully tragic, and the most moving ones were both. By the end of our research, my team and I discovered that each of these objects shared a common criteria that made them special to the owner.
Relationship
Prized possessions make a connection to a person or a group of people. They represent a relationship that may or may not be present still.
Past time
Prized possessions have a connection to past time, a memory or moment from your life.
Subjective value
Prized possessions create some kind of emotional imprint. The object evokes feelings when looked at or talked about, which create value to even the most monetarily valueless items.
We created our show and tell experience as a research method to collect stories around objects, but we also accidentally created a powerful emotional experience for seniors. The emotional experience of sharing fulfilled a need for these seniors to be heard, to feel connected, in a stage of life where they are often overlooked.
How do we decide what to keep and what to toss? This question was at the heart of this project. For six weeks, my research team and I dug into understanding the aging process, particularly how our relationship to "things" changes as we age.
Our collection of stories around objects started long before we realized it. We began our research by focusing on how the aging transition was affected by emotions, particularly around family relationships. We interviewed several adults who had recently helped their parents transition from independent to dependent living. For many people, this process involved downsizing and moving.
We gathered rich interviews about emotions and family, but mixed into these stories were family heirlooms and prized possessions. We couldn’t name it, but there was something about these objects that just felt important. So we stopped and asked: what's up with objects?
We needed to learn more about these objects, so we drew from the best of our childhood experience and created a “show and tell” event for the elderly. This event needed to be welcoming and enjoyable for them, but informative and structured for our research. So we created an event for elderly to showcase and share their most beloved and prized possessions. We decided to host this show and tell experience for seniors living at the Tradition, an independent living facility in Dallas. Residents we asked to "bring their treasure" and plan to chat about it.
Our research showed something separated the ordinary objects from the prized possessions in people’s lives. The physical nature of these objects captures something that people can no longer hold any other way. We discovered tat object physically accessed moments that can no longer be physically accessed.
We gathered over 40 stories from residents, including handwritten cards that served as descriptions of their objects and their stories. Some stories were delightful; others were painfully tragic, and the most moving ones were both. By the end of our research, my team and I discovered that each of these objects shared a common criteria that made them special to the owner.
Relationship
Prized possessions make a connection to a person or a group of people. They represent a relationship that may or may not be present still.
Past time
Prized possessions have a connection to past time, a memory or moment from your life.
Subjective value
Prized possessions create some kind of emotional imprint. The object evokes feelings when looked at or talked about, which create value to even the most monetarily valueless items.
We created our show and tell experience as a research method to collect stories around objects, but we also accidentally created a powerful emotional experience for seniors. The emotional experience of sharing fulfilled a need for these seniors to be heard, to feel connected, in a stage of life where they are often overlooked.
