Memory-Mark

Intention

Growing up in church, I've found a consistent problem common among Christians after reading the bible. Whether we encounter a riveting Psalm, or an inspirational Parable, many people in the Church have difficulty remembering what we have read. Out of the people who do remember what they read, many of these people do not deeply understand the deeper implications of what they have read. As a result, we do not carry the virtues we have read on Sunday into the weekdays. 

The difficulty in remembering may very well be linked to our lack of reflection of what we read. Whenever we read, there's many possible reasons as to why spiritual people do not reflect: Reflection is too hard because it utilizes too much mental resources, it makes people feel extremely uncomfortable, or because reflection is just something that flies over people's heads. However, regardless of the reason, we all share the same passion to remember what we read. So even though we have a desire to do so, why can't we carry out the desire to remember? 

Thus, using the critical design framework, I designed an unconventional bookmark object to challenge the status quo of a normal bookmark called the Memory-Mark. Not only can the Memory-Mark keep track of the last page read, but it also gets the reader to actively think about the text of a book, and encourages the reader to engage in the general act of self-reflection. 

Concept 

With the structure of a normal bookmark, a Memory-Mark also has the addition of a miniature screen at the top of the bookmark, and a button at the bottom of the bookmark. Whenever a user believes he/she has encountered a worthwhile passage in the book worth remembering, he can press the button to take a picture. The picture will appear on the screen. Whenever the user is done reading, he can put the bookmark in the book. Upon closing the book, the picture displayed on the screen will become blurry. Whenever the book is opened, the picture will not become blurry and be clear again. 

Upon seeing the blurry screen on the bookmark, it was my goal for users to subconsciously reflect on what they had read. Some questions/statements we might make may be"What was blurry? Why was I reading this in the first place? How do I prevent myself from forgetting in the future?" Unlike reading the bible digitally or without the Memory-Mark, it is the product's intention to encourage thorough and sustainable reflection. 

Precedent

1. Spector 

The first inspiration that inspired Memory-Mark is the Spector object created by Fiona O'Leary. This object is able to take pictures of fonts seen on media in real life, such as books and newspapers, and transmit these fonts to a real computer, which the user can use as extra typography. I was inspired by this to tie in the concept of taking pictures of the bible in its non-digitized form. 

2. Memory Bauble 

Additionally, I was also inspired by Daniela Petrelli and her Memory Baubles. These Baubles or ornaments are brought out as Christmas Tree decorations and will actively record or take snapshots of one's life. This inspired the concept of embodying valuable and sentimental pieces of information into an unconventional object. 

Process

My idea of a bookmark had originally started as a series of numbers that could be controlled by dials. The user would turn the dials to indicate the page that the user had just left off. When the book is closed on the bookmark, the lights would light up. However, I realized that the number light idea would be futile, since the bookmark would already be at the page that was just left off. Thus, I pivoted and moved to the concept of incorporating the feature of a digital screen, mostly inspired by Daniela Petrelli. 

Then, I set upon physically designing the object. I covered cardboard with red construction paper. Additionally, I laser-cut a 2x2 acrylic to simulate the screen on the Memory Mark and also super-glued a button to the bottom to act as the camera trigger. 

There were notable limitations to designing a technically-functioning object for this project, since I do not have much exposure to electronics and circuity. Thus, features such as interactive display screen that fades away and becomes clear after being covered with a bible, along with a camera that can send pictures to the screen were not feasible. Thus, I utilized the skills I had and first created mockups with Figma prototyping tool like I did above to show the progression of the Memory-Mark.  

 Then, I set upon physically designing the object. I covered cardboard with red construction paper. Additionally, I laser-cut a 2x2 acrylic to simulate the screen on the Memory Mark and also super-glued a button to the bottom to act as the camera trigger.   

Reflection

The most important thing I learned from this project was the concept of narrowing a focus. Originally, my project idea was very broad. It first asked the question if our memory would be improved if we performed a certain digitally as opposed to physically. Then, I slightly narrowed my focus by applying this concept to reading books digitally as opposed to reading books on e-readers.

This problem with a broad focus is that it leaves an audience that is too large to be generalized to answer research questions. Regarding my topic of encouraging people to reflect and remember the things they read, I never considered the possibility that people may not want to remember what they read. For example, many people pick up a novel at night after a long day's rest just to relax their mind. They don't worry about actively remembering what they want to read. Thus, for the future, I need to narrow my scope so I can have more useful and thought-provoking investigations. 

Regarding design, I should take a more Agile approach to constructing objects. I had taken a Structured approach by documenting all the materials and action plan needed to design my object, and then moving from one structured step to the next all the way until user testing. However, this quickly became a problem because I realized many times, I could have designed a part of my bookmark better, but I was left with little flexibility to change it. For example, I could have implemented pivots and hinges with my acrylic screen rather than gluing it onto the bookmark. I am not saying I won't make plans when I design things in the future, but I won't commit all my resources to one design iteration in the future. 

Open Questions and Challenges

After considerable user-testing, the biggest question for me to consider was whether the act of seeing a blurred picture of a piece text is enough motivation for one to begin reflecting. In the context of spiritual people, the responses were varied, and it could possibly require more incentive for people to reflect on the pictures of text they had taken. 

This raised an interesting question for me: Even for an audience of Christian people who stated they were highly motivated to remember pieces of text from the Bible, why were some users still unwilling to reflect and use the bookmark? Many people believed the bookmark was "cute", but not something they would use to reflect on content they had read previously in the past. This motivation to remember may not be well-suited as an individual activity, and for the future, a memory object in which multiple people engage with it should be investigated, since a shared experience (just how the Memory Bauble did) may improve valence towards reflection. 

In the future, it would be interesting to see how specific memory-encoding objects encourage specific audiences to actively engage in self-reflection. In a world where digitized technology is causing a high-paced rate of life where people have forgotten to take a step back, relax, and think, the need to slow down and engage in mindfulness and intentional reflection has increased, and I would be extremely interested in investigating. 

Attribution and References

http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2320000/2318009/p348-petrelli.pdf?ip=128.237.195.125&id=2318009&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=A792924B58C015C1%2E5A12BE0369099858%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35&__acm__=1550133261_2fbea10d4d9e7317ff0d5a6b79abec60