Talking Memories is a design project exploring how older adults, particularly those who are partially sighted, might engage with personal memories when visual media becomes difficult to access. The work drew on observation, interviews, cultural probes, and experience prototyping with participants in domestic contexts. These investigations highlighted a desire to reminisce despite reduced access to photographs and other visual artefacts. In response, the project focused on audio memories as an alternative medium for recollection.
The artefact supports the recording and playback of spoken memories through a small set of gestures, designed to be simple and legible without reliance on dictaphones or computers. Its form references familiar domestic objects, drawing on the shape of a telephone mouthpiece to indicate where to speak, and a bell to suggest the gestural interaction. Although manufactured in plastic, surface and material decisions were made to evoke ceramic, positioning the object closer to an heirloom than a conventional digital device. Multiple working prototypes were produced during development, with the final artefact functioning fully and tested within a domestic environment.