The cue is key : design for real-life remembering

This paper aims to put the memory cue in the spotlight. We will show how memory cues are incorporated in the area of interaction design. The focus will be on external memory cues: cues that exist outside the human mind but have an internal effect on memory reconstruction. Examples of external cues include people, environments and things, where the latter are most relevant for the aim of this paper since these cues can be incorporated in designs. The contribution of this paper is two-­-fold: 1-­- providing insights into how memory research informs the design of devices to facilitate personal memory recall; and 2-­- by taking a design perspective, raising questions about memory cues as part of real-­-life remembering to inform psychological memory research. Since memory theory inspires design and both fields would benefit from collaboration, we would like these questions to be inspiration for future memory research, in particular targeting external memory cues.