Slow __ Cam
Limitation + slowness to counteract abundance & digital hoarding
PROJECT
Individual Project – UX Design & Evaluation Course TEAM
Alice Borg DATE + DURATION
2022, 1 weekTOOLS
Videography via Final Cut, Figma, Miro, Design Fiction, Physical Prototyping, Human Powered Interactions, Graphical Design 
ABOUT
Slow_Cam is a speculative design focused on slowness and limitation—targeting the disproportionately large amount of media files generated from a habitual act of mindlessly taking lots of photos with the phone.
The design refers to a physical extension to the phone, embedded with visual and tangible clues to materialize digital storage for the user. Essentially, aiming to disrupt ways of being and offer points of discontinuity to amplify sustainable change.
PROCESS
The project is autobiographical, based on my own lived experience. The empirical data that inspired the project refers to my experience of using an analog camera. The slow and limited process made me reevaluate the habitual act of mindlessly taking lots of photos with my phone, to being present and treasuring the outcome a lot more, even if the photos weren't necessarily better.
Digital storage lacks materiality, and it becomes difficult for people to grasp what it actually means in practice. Physically storing your items requires space, and most people are not able to simply get additional space to store more. Instead, we need to carefully think about what we store, and somehow get rid of the things we no longer have space for. This restriction does not seem to apply to digital storage, and the negative consequences do not reach us in real time, i.e the negative environmental impact. The invincible nature of storing digital media has led us to become passive in our storing habits, enabling us to easily use more storage than we actually need.
The amount of photos + videos stored in the cloud / phone might not be where there’s most friction, but it opens up an opportunity to start a conversation about the issues related to digital storage, and is easily relatable for many. The goal is to disrupt our way of being, and offer points of discontinuity to change habits. Becoming more sustainable in digital storage, in this case photos, might have a snowball effect and lead to change in other parts of life as well.
Additionally, I engaged in three design conversations with people having varying prior experience with design. The conversations revealed little or no reflection around digital storage and its environmental impact. Confirming my views of it being abstract and so easily accessible, that the decision to buy more happens without reflection. But they also widened my perspective further, and generated insights that later were brought into the process.
UX–CHALLENGES
One of the main challenges was to work individually. I’m used to working in teams and appreciate the creative exchange it brings. However, I must say that I found a great balance in this project. Working by myself provided the freedom of being fully responsible for the theme and how to schedule the work. Inviting people to engage in design conversations fulfilled the creative exchange I believe is necessary for this type of work.
My aim with the project was to design a speculative design, with emphasis on limitation + slowness, to promote reflection around digital storage and support deeper appreciation towards the items we decide to store. Due to the time limitation of the project, it is only a conceptual idea, and could never be tested for real. I would love to continue the work and execute a long term study, where people would be able to test the prototype in a real context for a longer period of time.