Within human–computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design (IxD), there has been a growing desire to more deeply understand the use of technology within real, everyday settings. The goal is to gain a deep and experiential understanding of the effect of technology on people, society, and everyday life.

We present three projects where longitudinal ‘auto-approaches’ to research and design in HCI were applied, namely one auto-ethnography and two auto-biographical designs. These projects help illustrate the benefits of using these first-person research methods in longitudinal HCI and interaction design research for the rich data and fruitful insights they can bring around topics that are often difficult to access, such as long-term use of personal technology (e.g., mobile phones), use of technology in the private sphere (e.g., the home), and over distance (e.g., long-distance relationships).