Echoes of Loss

Abstract

Grief is a complex experience without a specific endpoint. It follows a unique path for each person. Many support sources are available, but finding support that fits is difficult. This inspired Verening Leven met Dood to develop the Rouw Wegwijzer, an online platform that provides personalised grief support. The focus of this thesis is to develop the platform from a user-centred perspective, specifically focusing on emerging adults who have lost a parent while not residing at home, a demographic for whom grief can wield a disruptive, life-altering impact.

The idea that grief has a set route and an end status of acceptance is a persistent, untrue belief in society. This shapes how bereaved think about their grief, how they are supported and what they expect from support. Contrary to this misconception, grief does not have a definitive end-point; rather, it involves a gradual and evolving understanding of the loss.

Effective grief support refrains from attempting to “fix” grief but rather acknowledges the bereaved and their experiences. Conversely, unhelpful support consists of offering unsolicited or paternalistic advice and attempting to solve the grief, approaches that contradict acknowledgement.

In this thesis, several research and design activities have been conducted to understand what grief is and what kind of support is considered supportive. Additionally, co-designing activities with the target group were conducted to find out what services are desirable for an online grief platform and how the interaction with the platform should be.

It was identified that grief support can have many forms, but usually is shaped as conversations or text. However, talking about grief can be difficult, due to the topic being taboo, making the bereaved untrained in expressing themselves and their needs. Generative sessions with the target group revealed “Recognition” as a promising design direction. Bereaved can expand their emotional vocabulary, by recognizing their emotions and experiences in the expressions of others, ultimately leading to a deeper comprehension of their grief. This led to the following design goal: “We want to offer bereaved emerging adults a place to explore their (understanding and expression of) grief, via recognition in others’ understanding and expressions.”

The final design is a platform that leverages recognition to uncover and identify grief experiences that might be difficult to put into words. It allows users to explore what is important for them while exploring and collecting varied content about grief, captured in texts, audio, images and videos. Based on the collected content, and the themes discussed in it, an overview is created of which themes seem relevant for the user. Then, per theme, the user can access information and support.

The platform’s unique approach, transitioning from “exploring based on feelings” to a “structured and supportive” overview of relevant information and support, received positive feedback, with participants of the us-er test describing it as inspiring, clarifying and enlightening. However, usability issues hindered the user experience. Recommendations on how to improve the usability of the platform are made. Additionally, recommendations for further development of the Rouw Wegwijzer are given.