"I wouldn't choose that key ring; it's not me":  a design study of cherished possessions and the self

Daniel  Orth; Elise van den Hoven

doi:10.1145/3010915.3010923

"I wouldn't choose that key ring; it's not me": a design study of cherished possessions and the self

Daniel Orth, Elise van den Hoven

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We each possess certain objects that are dear to us for a variety of reasons. They can be sentimental to us, bring us delight through their use or empower us. Throughout our lives, we use these cherished possessions to reaffirm who we are, who we were and who we wish to become. To explore this, we conducted a design study that asked ten participants to consider their emotional attachment towards and the identity-relevance of cherished and newly introduced possessions. Participants were then asked to elaborate on their responses in interviews. Through a thematic analysis of these responses, we found that the emotional significance of possessions was reportedly influenced by both their relevance to selfhood and position within a life story. We use these findings to discuss how the design of new products and systems can promote emotional attachment by holding a multitude of emotionally significant meanings to their owners.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	316-325
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4503-4618-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3010915.3010923
Publication status	Published - 29 Nov 2016
Event	OzCHI '16 Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction - Launceston, Tasmania, Australia Duration: 29 Nov 2016 → 2 Dec 2016 http://www.ozchi.org/ozchi2016/

Conference

Conference	OzCHI '16 Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction
Abbreviated title	OzCHI '16
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Tasmania
Period	29/11/16 → 2/12/16
Internet address	http://www.ozchi.org/ozchi2016/

Keywords

Cherished possessions
design research
self-identity
emotional attachment

Access to Document

10.1145/3010915.3010923

Cite this

@inproceedings{d89b0bac43c0422fb77b580f03688326,

title = "{"}I wouldn't choose that key ring; it's not me{"}: a design study of cherished possessions and the self",

abstract = "We each possess certain objects that are dear to us for a variety of reasons. They can be sentimental to us, bring us delight through their use or empower us. Throughout our lives, we use these cherished possessions to reaffirm who we are, who we were and who we wish to become. To explore this, we conducted a design study that asked ten participants to consider their emotional attachment towards and the identity-relevance of cherished and newly introduced possessions. Participants were then asked to elaborate on their responses in interviews. Through a thematic analysis of these responses, we found that the emotional significance of possessions was reportedly influenced by both their relevance to selfhood and position within a life story. We use these findings to discuss how the design of new products and systems can promote emotional attachment by holding a multitude of emotionally significant meanings to their owners.",

keywords = "Cherished possessions, design research, self-identity, emotional attachment ",

author = "Daniel Orth and {van den Hoven}, Elise",

note = "We would like to thank all participants for their time and contributions. This study was approved by the UTS Ethics Committee (#2015000289), and supported by STW VIDI grant number 016.128.303 of The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), awarded to Elise van den Hoven. ; OzCHI '16 Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, OzCHI '16 ; Conference date: 29-11-2016 Through 02-12-2016",

year = "2016",

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doi = "10.1145/3010915.3010923",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-4503-4618-4",

pages = "316--325",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

address = "United States",

url = "http://www.ozchi.org/ozchi2016/",

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Orth, D & van den Hoven, E 2016, "I wouldn't choose that key ring; it's not me": a design study of cherished possessions and the self. in Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 316-325, OzCHI '16 Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, Tasmania, Australia, 29/11/16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3010915.3010923

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AU - Orth, Daniel

AU - van den Hoven, Elise

N1 - We would like to thank all participants for their time and contributions. This study was approved by the UTS Ethics Committee (#2015000289), and supported by STW VIDI grant number 016.128.303 of The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), awarded to Elise van den Hoven.

PY - 2016/11/29

Y1 - 2016/11/29

N2 - We each possess certain objects that are dear to us for a variety of reasons. They can be sentimental to us, bring us delight through their use or empower us. Throughout our lives, we use these cherished possessions to reaffirm who we are, who we were and who we wish to become. To explore this, we conducted a design study that asked ten participants to consider their emotional attachment towards and the identity-relevance of cherished and newly introduced possessions. Participants were then asked to elaborate on their responses in interviews. Through a thematic analysis of these responses, we found that the emotional significance of possessions was reportedly influenced by both their relevance to selfhood and position within a life story. We use these findings to discuss how the design of new products and systems can promote emotional attachment by holding a multitude of emotionally significant meanings to their owners.

AB - We each possess certain objects that are dear to us for a variety of reasons. They can be sentimental to us, bring us delight through their use or empower us. Throughout our lives, we use these cherished possessions to reaffirm who we are, who we were and who we wish to become. To explore this, we conducted a design study that asked ten participants to consider their emotional attachment towards and the identity-relevance of cherished and newly introduced possessions. Participants were then asked to elaborate on their responses in interviews. Through a thematic analysis of these responses, we found that the emotional significance of possessions was reportedly influenced by both their relevance to selfhood and position within a life story. We use these findings to discuss how the design of new products and systems can promote emotional attachment by holding a multitude of emotionally significant meanings to their owners.

KW - Cherished possessions

KW - design research

KW - self-identity

KW - emotional attachment

U2 - 10.1145/3010915.3010923

DO - 10.1145/3010915.3010923

M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Y2 - 29 November 2016 through 2 December 2016