Cultural Memory Within The User Experience: From The Past To An Interface Of The Future

Abstract

: This paper presents the initial results of a study on cultural memory, from the design product`s perspective, with focus on user interface. In user experience design the cultural memory brings new ways of expression of the interface elements, consisting of updated reinterpretations of some elements well known by the masses of users. The cultural memory keeps, preserves the knowledge and the collective human experiences from the past, such as texts, images, practices and others, in order to be rediscovered and reused by the current generations. This leads to the creation of a new form of interface, in which the user becomes an integral part, by using a mutual fund of memory, manifested through the elements of interface who refer to the knowledge and the experience of the user. These memories are bringed back through a metonymical pattern, where the part named mnemonic trigger , refers to the whole, to the memory of the accumulated experience. This way, the cultural memory constitutes the foundation on which the new element will be built, reinterpreted and updated. The stage of reinventing the wheel is skipped in user interface because all the elements and all the operating modes already exist in the memory.The concept of cultural memory is exemplified by the element of the analog potentiometer, analysed in the light of some iconic design products. During the analysis, a new evolutionary interface is revealed, connected to the period-specific technologies of each product. These have influenced and they continue to infuence the development of new interfaces, constituting references to the foundation upon which a new interface will be built, which could be a potential interface of the future by the synchronisation with the emerging technologies and the recent scientific discoveries.