Usability Analysis of a Collective Digital Memorial System: Between Technique and Emotion
Abstract
Introduction: Although digital memorials have been discussed conceptually for over a decade, there remains scant evidence on the user experience of collective digital memorials, platforms where honorees share a common bond. Objective: To fill this gap by conducting a mixed-methods usability evaluation of a web-based collective memorial. Methodology: Eight participants, varied in age, gender, and technical familiarity, completed representative tasks while their interactions were recorded via screen capture, think-aloud protocol, and preand post-test questionnaires. Results: Analysis uncovered recurring challenges in onboarding, feedback, and cultural representativeness that critically shape the user experience. Based on these findings, three grief-oriented heuristics are proposed to extend Nielsen’s usability principles with considerations specific to posthumous memory. All data and a replication package are publicly available to support further research.
Keywords:
Digital Legacy, Death, Usability, Digital Memorial, Collective, Analysis
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Brubaker, J. R., Dombrowski, L., Gilbert, A. M., Kusumakaulika, N., Hayes, G. R. (2014). Stewarding a legacy: Responsibilities and relationships in the management of post-mortem data. In CHI ’14: One of a CHInd, Session: Social Media for Relationships, pages 4157–4166. ACM. DOI: 10.1145/2556288.2557059
Cambria, E., Hussain, A. (2015). Sentic Computing: A Common-Sense-Based Framework for Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis. Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated, 1st edition. Available at: [link]
Castro, E. T. (2018). Aqui também jaz um patrimônio: identidade, memória e preservação patrimonial a partir do tombamento de um cemitério (o caso do cemitério do imigrante de Joinville/SC, 1962–2008). Available at: [link]
Creswell, J. W., Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 5th edition.
Ecma International (2020). ECMAScript 2020 Language Specification. Technical Standard. Available at: [link]
Ferreira, D. A. A., Pinheiro, M. M. K., Marques, R. M. (2021). Termos de uso e políticas de privacidade das redes sociais online. Informação & Informação, 26(4):550–574. Available at: [link]
Furniss, D., Burnett, M., Vorvoreanu, M., Stumpf, S., Makri, S. (2019). Finding gender-inclusiveness software issues with Gendermag: A field investigation. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–12, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. ACM. Available at: DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858274
Google (2025). Toast overview. Available at: [link]. Accessed: 2025-07-08.
Grant, M. J., Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2):91–108. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.
Lopes, A. D., Maciel, C., Pereira, V. C. (2014). Recomendações para o design de memórias digitais na web social. In Proceedings of the 13th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’14, pages 275–284. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação. DOI: 10.5555/2738055.2738099
Maciel, C. (2021). Sistemas gerenciadores de legado digital: implicações tecnológicas e legais em redes sociais. In Anais do X Brazilian Workshop on Social Network Analysis and Mining, pages 275–286, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC. DOI: 10.5753/brasnam.2021.16148
Microsoft Corporation (2020). Microsoft SQL Server documentation. Documentação Técnica. Available at: [link]
Monteiro, L. F. F., Maciel, C., Trevisan, D. and Pereira, V. C. (2024) “Preserving Memories Together: Proposing Artifacts for Collective Digital Memorials”, In: Proceedings of the 20th Brazilian Symposium on Information Systems (SBSI '24), Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Association for Computing Machinery, Article 30, 9 pages. DOI: 10.1145/3658271.3658301
Neris, V. P. A., Rosa, J. C. S., Maciel, C., Pereira, V. C., Galvão, V. F., Arruda, I. L. (2024). GrandIHc-BR 2025–2035 – GC4: Sociocultural aspects in human-computer interaction. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’24, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3702038.3702057
Nielsen, J., Mack, R. L., editors (1994). Usability Inspection Methods. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
Ohman, C. J., Watson, D. (2019). Are the dead taking over Facebook? A big data approach to the future of death online. Big Data & Society, 6(1):2053951719842540. DOI: 10.1177/2053951719842540
Pereira, R., Darin, T., Silveira, M. S. (2024). GrandIHc-BR: Grand research challenges in human-computer interaction in Brazil for 2025–2035. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’24, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3702038.3702061
Trevisan, D., Maciel, C., Pereira, V. C., Pereira, R. (2021). Perspectives on interaction with dead users’ profiles on Facebook. In Proceedings of the XX Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’21, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3472301.3484363
Ueda, G., Maciel, C. (2021). Analysis and convergence of studies on recommendations for digital memorials. In Proceedings of the XX Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’21, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3472301.3484348
Ueda, G., Monteiro, L. F. F., Maciel, C., Pereira, V. C. (2022). Digital memorials: classifications and design recommendations. Journal on Interactive Systems, 13(1):335–349. Available at: [link]
Virzi, R. A. (1992). Refining the test phase of usability evaluation: How many subjects is enough? Human Factors, 34(4):457–468. DOI: 10.1177/001872089203400407
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2014). HTML5 specification. Web Standard. Available at: [link]
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2021). Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). Web Standard. Available at: [link]
Published
2025-09-08
How to Cite
FERREIRA MONTEIRO, Luís Flávio; MACIEL, Cristiano; PEREIRA, Vinícius Carvalho; LIMA, Fernanda.
Usability Analysis of a Collective Digital Memorial System: Between Technique and Emotion. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN FACTORS IN COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEMS (IHC), 24. , 2025, Belo Horizonte/MG.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 1257-1276.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/ihc.2025.10882.
