The Social Uses of Personal Photography: Methods for Projecting Future Imaging Applications

An important problem for technology design is predicting users and uses for emerging technologies—doing usercentered design for users and uses that don't yet exist. The primary contribution of this paper is in presenting a method for anticipating future uses of new technology by looking at users’ higher-order motives or activities for current and emerging technology. We identify three high-order motives or “social uses” for personal photos: constructing personal and group memory; creating and maintaining social relationships; and self-expression and self-presentation . We then articulate design implications for digital imaging technology with an emphasis on networked programmable mobile imaging devices, especially cameraphones.