The Humor of Sadness
The Humor of Sadness - An interactive museum, exploring the life and illustrious work of choreographer and dancer, founder of the 'Tanztheater Wuppertal'; Pina Bausch. The museum focuses on three prominent Bausch works: 'Nelken', 'The Right of Spring' and 'Palermo Palermo'.
Web Design | User Experience | Concept | Curating
Pina Bausch Virtual Museum | 2022
The website provides users with a unique and intriguing experience. The site is a dark stage, and the mouse acts as a flashlight wandering across it.
The Causes
Generic Design and Messaging
External apps often use standardized templates and generic language, lacking the personality and customization needed to truly represent a business.
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The Causes
Spread Memories
People use a myriad of ways to collect and store memories- Google Photos, Google Drive, Dropbox, smartphone albums, and physical formats like memory books. How can all of these be brought together in one place?
Collaboration
Creating a truly meaningful commemoration often requires the input of many people who were part of the deceased's life. There's no convenient platform that facilitates easy and effective collaboration.
Information Overload
Information Overload: The sheer volume of photos, videos, and documents associated with a loved one can be overwhelming. Organizing and making sense of this digital clutter requires significant time and effort, which can be a daunting task during a period of grief.
Emotional Overload
Emotional Overload: Dealing with the loss of a loved one is emotionally draining. The process of sorting through memories and confronting reminders of their absence can be intensely painful, making it difficult to find the emotional energy and resilience needed for this task.
Customers may feel less connected to the business and less likely to book appointments or return for future services.
Inconsistent branding can dilute a business's identity and make it harder to stand out from the competition.
Businesses may miss out on opportunities to upsell services, gather customer feedback, or build relationships with clients.
The Consequences
User
Research
Shimi, 42
Lost his mother | 8 months of mourning
Background
Shimi lost his mother 8 months ago after a prolonged illness. He mainly commemorates her with his thoughts, which he says keep the person alive. It's important for him to remember everything well. His family wants to make a book or commemorate her in some way, but none of them have taken the initiative and made an active move.
Remembering: For Whom?
It's important for Shimi to remember, especially for his mother. He feels that as part of their connection, he has a commitment to her to remember her.
Accessing Memories
Every few weeks, at intimate times, like before sleep.
Using Platforms
They don't really exist. I go to read the chats on WhatsApp and occasionally look at the photo gallery on my phone.
Main Challenge
Proper and quality commemoration is a big project that requires a central figure to take it upon themselves.
Preferred app usage
The input work through the computer, and the output work through the phone.
additional ideas
Filtering through diverse filters: not only by time units or specific events. For example, you can also filter by the person's character traits.
"It needs to be kept simple, no need for more complexities"
Dana, 57
Aunt | 23 years of mourning
Background
Dana is a mother of a large family. Her aunt passed away many years ago and after her death, Dana adopted her aunt's daughters. She is responsible for the "family memory" and makes sure to send family photos from the past and present in groups. Memory is a big concern for her and it makes her feel good.
Remembering: For Whom?
Connection to roots, continuity, lineage, identity, and respect are important to Dana.
Accessing Memories
For every occasion, birthday, etc., she searches for relevant photos. She deals with photos quite a lot throughout the year.
Using Platforms
She uses an external hard drive to search for photos.
Main Challenge
Dana searches for photos on her computer that are relevant to events, such as photos together with specific people, at a certain age, etc., which takes hours.
Preferred app usage
She would prefer to do this on her phone, but currently can't for technical reasons.
additional ideas
She wants to tag people to see shared photos of them together.
"If it were easier to access, I would do it all the time. Like, even when we're just talking, you'll mention my dad and I'll want to show you what he looked like."
Tamar, 50
Father | 35 years of mourning
Background
Tamar lost her father when she was a very young child and doesn't have many memories of him. She was very close to her aunt Elia, who she recently lost after an illness. Tamar loves working with photos and used to create family albums and videos, and even enjoyed it. Lately, she hasn't been able to approach this task. Tamar is single and has no children.
Remembering: For Whom?
She doesn't preserve memories for future generations or for the deceased, but for herself and those around her.
Accessing Memories
She used to watch the videos and photos every month or two. In recent years she hasn't watched them.
Using Platforms
Albums that were quickly abandoned in Google Photos. She searches for photos manually in her phone's gallery and uses the Cluster app. In the past, she created physical albums and edited videos.
Main Challenge
Technological. She finds it difficult to download photos from all the different platforms and gather them together.
Preferred App Usage
Only via phone in her "free time." Due to an attention deficit, she can't sit down specifically for this task.
Additional Ides
No additional ideas.
"It's nice, this shared collective memory. Like building a puzzle together."
Yael, 44
Aunt | 1 year of mourning
Background
Yael lost her father when she was just a baby, so her only memories of him are through photos. She recently lost her aunt, to whom she was very close, after an illness. Yael has two children, and both she and they enjoy remembering and getting to know their grandfather through photos, something they didn't get to experience in reality.
Remembering: For Whom?
She preserves memories especially for herself, for her children to get to know the important people in her life, and also for those who are "watching us from above."
Accessing Memories
When questions arise from the children. Once or twice a year.
Using Platforms
Nothing digital, currently a memory book from many years ago and photos hanging at home.
Main Challenge
When it's a book, it's accessible and open to view. All technological means are not accessible to her.
Your ideal app experience
Technological. She finds it difficult to download photos from all the different platforms and gather them together.
Additional Ideas
No additional ideas.
"It's nice, this shared collective memory. Like building a puzzle together"
The Causes
Generic Design and Messaging
External apps often use standardized templates and generic language, lacking the personality and customization needed to truly represent a business.
Heading 5
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Heading 5
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
The Consequences
Generic Design and Messaging
External apps often use standardized templates and generic language, lacking the personality and customization needed to truly represent a business.
01
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02
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03
Market
Reaserch
Generic and Messaging
External apps often use standardized templates and generic language, lacking the personality and customization needed to truly represent a business.
Heading 5
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Heading 5
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
01
Organization
User control vs. AI assistance.
How to balance the two?
02
Varying Perspectives
How to handle content that might be disrespectful to some but not others?
03
Reminders
Helpful memory prompts or painful intrusions? Finding the right balance.
04
Difficult Content
Remembering everything vs. protecting from painful memories. How to navigate this?
Dilemmas
The Features
Each time the mouse encounters a segment from a piece, users can delve deeper and learn more: the music, the dancers, stories and selected quotes, a photo gallery, and more.
From the piece 'Palermo Palermo'
From the piece 'The Right of Spring'
From the piece 'Nelken'
In the design, I chose to focus on the dissonance between sadness and laughter, a characteristic of Bausch's work (hence the name of this online exhibition). This is expressed through the contrast and playfulness in the typography and color palette.
The use of fabrics was also a hallmark of Bausch, inspiring the extensive use of image cutouts that together create a textured experience.
