Stimulating photo curation on smartphones

Abstract

Personal photo collections have grown due to digital photography and the introduction of smartphones, and photo collections have become harder to manage. Deleting photos appears to be difficult and the task of curation is often perceived as not enjoyable. The lack of curation can make it harder to retrieve photos when people need them for various reasons, such as individual reminiscing, shared remembering or self-presentation. In this study we investigate how we can stimulate people to organise their photo collections on their smartphones. Ten participants evaluated and qualitatively compared four applications with different characteristics regarding voting on and deleting photos. We found that voting on photos is easier and more enjoyable in comparison to deleting photos, that participants showed reminiscence while organising, that deleting can be frustrating, that participants have different preferences for sorting and viewing photos and that voting could make deleting and retrieving easier.