The experience as a document: designing for the future of collaborative remembering in digital archives

Delatte Espinosa, Marta

Abstract

How does it feel when we remember together on-line? Who gets to say what it is worth to be remembered? To understand how the user experience of participation is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments, first it is important to take into consideration how the notion of memory has been transformed under the influence of the digital revolution. I aim to contribute to the field of User Experience (UX) research theorizing on the felt experience of users from a memory perspective, taking into consideration aspects linked to both personal and collective memories in the context of connected environments.

Harassment and hate speech in connected conversational environments are specially targeted to women and underprivileged communities, which has become a problem for digital archives of vernacular creativity (Burgess, J. E. 2007) such as YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and Wikipedia. An evaluation of the user experience of underprivileged communities in creative archives such as Wikipedia indicates the urgency for building a feminist space where women and queer folks can focus on knowledge production and learning without being harassed. The theoretical models and designs that I propose are a result of a series of prototype testing and case studies focused on cognitive tools for a mediated human memory operating inside transactive memory systems. With them, aims to imagine the means by which feminist protocols for UX design and research can assist in the building and maintenance of the archive as a safe/brave space.

Working with perspectives from media theory, memory theory and gender studies and centering the user experience of participation for women, queer folks, people of colour (POC) and other vulnerable and underrepresented communities as the main focus of inquiring, my research takes an interdisciplinary approach to interrogate how online misogyny and other forms of abuse are perceived by communities placed outside the center of the hegemonic normativity, and how the user experience of online abuse is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments.

Citation

Delatte Espinosa, M. (2020). The experience as a document: designing for the future of collaborative remembering in digital archives. (Thesis). University of Hull. Retrieved from https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4222371

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2023
• Keywords: Digital media
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4222371
• Additional Information: Faculty of Arts, Culture and Education, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Mar 1, 2020