Death is new design consideration in technological age

At first glance, death seems like an unlikely thesis topic for a computer scientist. But for the University of Toronto's Mike Massimi , it makes perfect sense. "Technology plays a large role in our lives," he said. "Ideally, technology design would take into account the entire life course, from the time we are young children to our deaths." Massimi, who will complete his PhD later this month, is a computer scientist specializing in human-computer interaction (HCI), a sub-discipline that studies, plans and designs the interactions between people and computers. However, he thinks that traditional user-centred design has been too focused on the immediate, short-term needs of users and should adopt a long-range perspective that considers mortality, death and dying during the design process. "The time has come for HCI specialists to consider this because of the rapid aging of populations worldwide, and the increasing likelihood that we will have to deal with issues of dying and death numerous times in our lifetime." said Massimi's supervisor, Professor Ron Baecker, director of U of T's Technologies for Aging Gracefully lab (TAGlab). For his thesis, Massimi chose to develop a technology specific to death and decided to build an online bereavement support system.