Love, Death, and Computers
I don’t know if there are dedicated teams at Apple or other companies to deal with death, but there probably should be. Though I was happy to see the Legacy Contact feature introduced a couple years ago, it’s not everything we need.
When I worked on iTunes, we briefly discussed inheriting purchased music, but we didn’t build anything for it. Product teams may never prioritize legacy-related features because they’re not glamorous. But a team separate from product design and development could develop a strategy for how a company tackles those issues, with specific proposals for different products.
In addition to birthdate, there should be a deceased date field in Contacts. That data can be used for both memorial purposes and to prevent Siri suggestions about making a posthumous birthday call. There should also be an easy way to archive threads with a deceased loved one in iMessage to preserve those memories. There should be a path to inherit iTunes purchases, even though there are legal differences between a CD and a digital album. (Buy physical media, people.)
Getting into this headspace may be difficult for product designers who want to stay focused on new exciting ways to use products, who may not yet have had someone close to them pass away. It’s a difficult thing to do, but unlike many flashy features built for a subset of users, this pertains to everyone. Death comes for us all, and I’d like better digital tools in place for us to deal with it.
