Design is Worth a Thousand Words: The Effect of Digital Interaction Design on Picture-Prompted Reminiscence

Interactions with our personal and family pictures are essential to continued social reminiscence, leading to long-term benefits, including reduced social isolation. Previous research has identified how designs of digital picture tools fall short of physical options specifically in terms of reminiscence. However, the relative prompting abilities of different digital interactions, including the types of memories prompted like external facts or person-centred memories, have not yet been explored. To investigate this, we present a controlled study of the memories prompted by three digital picture interactions (slideshow, gallery, and tabletop) on personal touchscreen devices. We find differences in how these tools and the interactions they support prompt reminiscence. In particular, gallery views prompt significantly fewer memories than either the tabletop or slideshow. Slideshows prompt significantly more external, factual memories, but not more person-centred memories, which are key to reminiscence. This has implications for the overall social usability of digital picture interactions.