Conference Proceedings

MyTime: Co-Designing a Hybrid Digital Boardgame for Supporting Meaningful Family Life Storytelling

Fangxing Zhao, Wei Zhao, Jenny Waycott, Melissa J. Rogerson

Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems | ACM | Published : 2026

Abstract

Autobiographical life storytelling is valuable for older adults to maintain narrative identity and strengthen social bonds. However, it is often presented in static, one-way formats, with limited opportunity for deeper audience engagement. This paper introduces MyTime, a hybrid boardgame co-designed with two older adult storytellers. The game involves sorting physical cards representing the storyteller's key personal and historical events into a timeline, with a custom app offering additional text, photo, audio, or video information related to each story. We evaluated MyTime through play with the storytellers’ families. Findings show that the flip-to-reveal and scan-for-story elements invite..

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