Challenge
How might people record and look back on their experiences more faithfully, for a fuller and more objective self-reflection?
Problem statement
Research shows that our memories change with how they are formed and stored, often reflecting our own biases. That limits how objective self-reflection can be: when we look back, we see a version our memory has reworked, not the event itself.
Aim
Turn the link between memory and self-discovery into a small, warm, tangible toolkit. Through daily writing and reflection, it helps people capture how they feel in the moment, look at it more rationally, and let the past guide what they do next. The kit runs over two weeks, so reflection becomes an easy habit.
Research
Memory is less reliable than we think: the brain keeps rewriting it, and it quietly shapes how we see ourselves. To understand how memory and self-reflection connect, I researched from three angles: a psychological consultant, five days observing myself, and interviews about how others came to know themselves.
Expert inquiry
An online interview with a psychological consultant from China, to bring established counseling techniques, such as CBT, into my design approach.1
Autoethnography
Five days of self-observation. I logged every occurrence, broke it into emotion, event and thought, and arranged them for later review.1
Interview
Directed storytelling: “Can you share an experience of getting to know yourself, and its impact on you?” to see whether my insights held for others.1
Key insights
- 01
- Negative emotions often come from how we interpret an event, not from the event itself.
- 02
- So the rule for the whole kit: record the event and the thought separately, so people can see where a feeling really comes from.
Workshop
To see how self-reflection can shape future actions, I ran a workshop with 10 people in three phases.
01 Event illustration
Participants drew a recent event that had affected them emotionally but was now resolved.
02 Reflective advice
On the back, they wrote the advice their present self would give their past self.
03 Tool creation
With LEGO, they built a model of that advice, a tool to help themselves.
This showed how reflection can guide what we do next, and inspired me to build this advice into the kit, so users can weigh up a situation and pick the right tool for a negative emotion.
Along the way I found that events could be sorted by how much control the person had over them: ControllableSemi-controllableUncontrollable
Intimate relationship communication
Calm down and communicate patiently.
Misunderstanding with partner
Go for a walk in the park, then calm down before talking.
Shared bathroom neglect
Think of her good side, and look at it from another angle.
Friend’s complaint
Face the problem, don’t run away, and think of the friendship.
Excessive wait for an appointment
Remind yourself you’re not alone, and reach out to a friend.
Phone stolen
Recall the good and bad things in your own life.
Design insights & strategy
Through the design process, I pictured a toolkit that moves through three stages:
- 01 Past · Capture
- A medium for recording emotionally charged events from daily life.
- 02 Present · Interpret
- Guidance for looking at a negative emotion rationally, with ways to ease it.
- 03 Future · Decide
- Reviewing past records to make better decisions next time.
Form
A tangible toolkit that makes daily recording a small ritual, with materials for logging and tools for managing negative emotions.
Cycle
Two weeks, so there is enough to look back on and reflect on at the end.
Prototyping
Three pieces to prototype: what people write on, the booklet that explains the kit, and the tool for a bad moment.
Recording
Inspired by everyday receipts: a Grateful Receipt for three good things each day, and an Unpleasant Receipt for negative emotions.1
Instructions
A basic booklet explaining each part of the kit, and the reflection steps once the two weeks are up: Diary, Tools, Reflection, and For the future.1
Tool
Suggestions in three groups — Calm down, Active shift and Take action — drawn from the workshop and the research.1
Made into an interactive desk object: the layout changed from linear to circular, and icons were replaced with text.2
User testing & iteration
Participants used the kit for several days. Feedback was positive, but a few problems came up, which led to the changes below.
User 1
“I felt your project is a great starter kit when it comes to putting us in a habit of contemplation. It can tell you different options and you actually end up choosing one of them to calm yourself.”
User 2
“Looking back at the Grateful Receipt reminds me of the things that made me happy.”
Motivation
Problem Users weren’t motivated enough to keep recording every day.
Designed branding around the “Cloud” mascot, symbolizing how the water cycle represents the cyclical process of self-reflection.1
Transformed receipts into concise daily entries with motivational phrases, each unique and derived from my autoethnography journey.2
Compiled “My Journey Inward,” detailing self-discoveries from my autoethnography. Introduce my story: what I have learned from my negative and positive emotions.3
Actionable guidance
Problem The tool’s advice was too abstract, with no concrete next step.
Transformed vague advice into concrete action cards, providing clear, immediate strategies for emotional coping.1
Users turn the pointer while deciding which tool suits how they feel right now.2
Structured reflection
Problem Receipts needed somewhere private to live, and the review at the end needed more structure.
Designed the storage approach with a new folder layout.1
Introduced 14 “Reflection Receipts” for orderly daily thought review, promoting deeper introspection.2
Final outcome
The finished kit: receipts in their box, the receipt collection folder, the coping tool and action cards, the instructions, and My Journey Inward.
Next steps
The kit works as a prototype. Two things would take it further.
01 Run a full cycle
Testing ran over a few days; the kit is built for two weeks. Only a whole cycle shows whether the daily writing sticks, and whether the reflection at the end repays two weeks of receipts.
02 Build a companion app
The kit stays at home, but the moments it is for often happen while people are out. A phone app would let them quickly record an event that set off a negative feeling and choose how to respond to it, there and then.
Next in the file
Little Wood Home
Feb 2023 — Mar 2023
A speculative room tour exploring how domestic space could become a shared habitat for humans and non-human species.
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