This week I aimed to create a rough draft of personas and to start narrowing down on insights. By narrowing down on insights early on, I can focus on some rough prototypes while focusing my questions for future interviews.

Idea Sketches

I quickly started sketching ideas based on the brainstorm session from last Friday. The main themes that came up were around stories, facilitating conversations, meditation, and remembering memories. But I didn’t feel an inclination towards one of these ideas. It didn’t feel like any of these would resonate with people. I needed to continue research and start synthesizing information.

Primary Research

MIRIAM ROSAS

25 YEARS OLD \\ FEMALE \\ PHOTO EDITOR @ AIRBNB \\ HASN’T EXPERIENCED LOSS

“As much as you want to prepare for it, you can’t.”
“In Mexican culture, prayers help them cross to the other side.”
“My uncle has diabetes and is slowly going blind. My mom keeps telling me to call him, but I haven’t yet because I don’t want to face it. I’ll regret it if I don’t call, but I don’t want to face it right now. It’s so selfish of me.”
“Día de los Muertos - The time period where the dead can visit you. You have a picture of the ones who have passed, you provide food, drinks, items, and bread of the dead (specific to Día de los Muertos). Some people see them in their dreams. It’s essentially a Mexican Halloween, but instead of candy, they give out fruit. And instead of saying anything at the door, you kneel down and pray for their passed ones - it’s an exchange.”
“Death is always at the back of my head.”
“I didn’t remember anything before birth and I don’t think I’ll worry about anything after death so how would I be sad about it?”

ANGELICA QUACH

21 YEARS OLD \\ FEMALE\\ STUDYING BIOLOGY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE @ UC BERKELEY \\ HAS EXPERIENCED LOSS

“Before experiencing death I felt very detached from it.”
“There’s a feeling of helplessness because you can’t help the people [around you] and you can’t stop death. And no matter what everyone deserves the same care, can’t get caught up with circumstances (in reference to her experience as an EMT).”
“I talked to my grandma about Lim (referencing David Lim who passed in 2018) and we had mature conversations about death. For her, she started writing a will when she first entered the hospital. I also asked her ‘why do people die a different times?’ because she’s really religious and I wanted to get her perspective. When I was telling her how great Lim was, she told me ‘maybe they wanted him back.’”
“It’s strange not being able to go to their funeral (regarding David Lim, whose funeral was held in Korea). Even though we had a vigil and a place to ‘visit’ him, it’s not the same. I want to visit him. It’s not satisfying to just pray.”

Matthew Tran

21 YEARS OLD \\ Male \\ STUDYING Economics @ UC BERKELEY \\ HAS EXPERIENCED LOSS

“It happens, might as well go with it.”
“Everything is transient.”
“Sometimes (when someone passes) we’ll have a monk come (to the ceremony) to help the soul reach nirvana. It’s about 2-4 hours of kneeling and 1-2 days of celebrating with food. Sometimes people will wear white headbands and make totems. It’s kind of a progression to the actual cremation burial.”
“When (the passing of a friend) happened, it felt really abrupt and it felt like his story got cut short. It made me wish I did better. But it didn’t feel very concrete; it was more abstract.”
“I’m not scared of crying, but I usually cry out of anger rather than grief.”
“Grief is a problem and it’s something you can talk out. You shouldn’t hold it in because it might build up. I don’t think it’s something that will ever actually heal; it’ll flare up here and there.”
“Nothing would have changed it.”
“As a generation, we are privileged to talk about these things. We have lives where we have time to think about these topics (grief, loss, death, depression, anxiety, etc.). Compared to those living in a more rural lifestyle, we have so much time to just think. But I think we’re at a turning point where we’re actually talking about these types of things.”
“Take everything as is.”

Terrance Wang

20 YEARS OLD \\ Male \\ studying computer science @ uc bErkeley \\ HASn’t EXPERIENCED LOSS

“I view loss as something where you lose something good/happy to you. If you lose something sad, it’s usually a more positive thing because you overcame something.”
“I don’t view drifting friendships as something to grieve about. I felt it more after a breakup. I would try to distract myself with video games, social media, mindless things. I would try to process my emotions and try to understand ‘Why do I feel this way?’”
“Sometimes being sad isn’t a bad thing. It’s ok to feel sad at times.”
“Grief and regret go hand in hand. You kind of look for more things to be sad about. And you try to not to it because you know it’s not helpful.”
“I tell myself that something could have been better, but I avoid stressing or obsessing over it.”
“I’m comfortable with being vulnerable but it can be kind of weird talking about certain topics. I don’t want to make someone sad by talking about problems. If there’s an okay moment to share it’s more appropriate. It’s about finding the right moment.”
“I wasn’t that close to my grandparents but when my grandma passed we burned paper money so they could use it in the afterlife. But I personally don’t believe in the afterlife, people just pass.”
“I try to journal everyday so I can look back and remember emotions and day-to-day memories.”
“Handling loss is personal. It’s something you should do alone without feeling alone.”

Jasmine Le

20 YEARS OLD \\ Female \\ STUDYING EECS @ UC BERKELEY \\ Anticipating LOSS

“When my paternal grandmother passed, I was really young and I wasn’t that close to her. My parents shuffled around and took my sister (6 years older) to the hospital to see her for the last time while I was still in bed. I can’t say if I was personally impacted by her passing or if I was sad because my family was sad. Should I be sad? Why am I feeling this way? Would I react differently if I was there?”
“Lost a pet in high school and it was really sad because it was slowly losing neurological function. It was my pet; I bought it myself and took care of it.”
“I drifted away from my first friends in college who I also knew in high school. I was also getting out of a toxic relationship at the time. I had to recover from a very emotionally charged time. But that feeling (mixed feelings of sadness, toxicity, grief) mostly faded after time. Time helped a lot.”
“My maternal grandmother is sick and it’s something my family has been preparing for a couple of years now. My Australian uncle used to visit every couple of years but now he visits once a year just to make sure to see her for the last time; because we don’t know when she’ll pass.”
“It’s hard to talk about grief and loss when its immediate. You need to navigate the conversation to minimize the (negative) effects.”

Synthesis

With a total of 6 interviews I began synthesizing data to see what common themes came up. I haven’t finished synthesizing but so far the similarities are:

Preparing for loss: financial, emotional, physical
Helping our lost ones pass: prayers, physical objects
Cultural rituals
Near death: not good to be alone, more family gatherings, sickness changes things
Different perspectives: sudden vs. approaching death, rural vs urban, etc.
Wants: Tangible, stories, memories, family ancestry
Feelings around loss: regret, guilt, selfish, scary, helpless
Remembering: snapshot to remember, abrupt, look back at memories, their presence is everywhere
Perspective on grief: problem you need to talk about, flares, different contexts
Maturity: conversations, privilege
Legacy: digital, physical, emotional
Processing thoughts: meditate, journal, understand why
Friends: their view of you

I will continue to synthesize and group ideas into concrete categories. From there I will analyze and come up with at least 5 insights to focus my prototypes on.

User Personas

In order to continue narrowing down my topic, I decided on 3 main user personas.

Those who haven’t experienced loss
Those who have experiences loss
Those anticipating loss (a sick family member)

Next week, I will have more fully fleshed user personas after a few more interviews.

Reflection

This week felt like a “thinking” week where I was more in my thoughts rather than actively doing interviews. I focused on ideation of concepts and synthesizing information. I didn’t make as much progress as I anticipated but I will focus even harder this coming week.

Overall, I’m trying to hone in my focus. I’m leaning towards how topics around processing feelings (grief, loss, regret, etc.) or facilitating conversations and stories.

Next Steps

This coming week, I will continue interviews and synthesizing the information. On Friday, I will have at least 1 rough prototype on a concept. I will also continue to do research around anticipatory grief and how people process feelings after a major life event.

Senior Thesis

Exploring Concepts (9/30-10/6)