Temporal anchors in user experience research

As HCI becomes more aware of long-term use experience, users' retrospection might be one starting point to explore prior interactive use. However, due to the limitation of current methodologies and human memory, research participants might recall specific prior use episodes and less their experience over time. In this note, we examine how to encourage retrospection and reflection concerning the changes of use experience in the past and over time. We have reviewed relevant research and traced the usage of temporal references in those studies, such as diagrams of use measurement over time or the history of interactive products. We propose the notion of temporal anchors as way of capturing and grounding temporal aspects of long-term use experience. We have found that methods that include temporal anchors have facilitated opportunities for rich reflections and communications around use experience and temporality.