Interview 1: The Working Single Mother
I started off my interviews with someone who I knew could use a smart watch in her life, I just didn't know how yet. This candidate is a single mom in her 30's who works full time for the Boalt School of law. Her job consists of maintaining and updating voting and census data from across California. A normal day for her is dropping off her daughter for school, coming to work for 4 hours, picking her daughter up from school then coming back to work for another 2-4 hours. Her busy schedule makes sure that this young Mom is always occupied, and makes her a prime candidate for a smart watch. My interview with her touched on what would simplify her interactions with her phone to make her life easier.
I opened up the interview by asking her what has caused her the most trouble with her phone recently. For my project, I wanted to focus not necessarily on what would be the most convenient change from phone to watch but more on what would be the most useful change. One of her main concerns from the very beginning was keeping in contact with anything relating to her daughter. At her work, my candidate was concerned that she could possibly miss notifications or emergencies that would come up. She noted that especially during meetings, her phone has to be on silent and out of sight. In the event of an emergency, she would not be notified until the meeting was over, possibly hours later. With a good starting point, I moved on to questions about her work. My candidate pointed out how usually at work a phone is redundant because most of the utility is similar to what a computer could do. She instead said that using her phone on the go or while away from the desk was better. Specifically if she needed to call someone, look up directions or respond to a call.
Moving away from work I asked my candidate about her home life and her interactions with her phone. I could immediately tell this was a big point of interest because she became quite excited. At home, she spends most of her time on her phone instead of her computer. Her daughter usually has the computer occupied or they are watching tv together on it. This meant that using a smart watch would be incredibly beneficial at home. Her list of things she does at home with her phone ranged from shopping for gifts to looking up recipes to even paying bills. I now had a wide range of uses and ideas so I thanked my candidate for her time and began brainstorming ideas about applications for her.
Interview 2: The Lab Manager
For my second interview, I went with a man of many positions and skills. I wanted to interview someone with a bit more technical expertise but who would still find need for a smart watch. With presuppositions aside, I sat down with my second candidate, a lab manager, researcher and husband in his early 30's. He works in the field of human computer interaction and I hoped he could give me more of an insight into a more technical side of what would make a smart watch useful for him. The interview started off on a weird foot, more than likely due to the vague nature of asking what his phone had done recently that made him upset. His initial reaction was in regards to the user interface of his phone. Aside from being difficult to navigate, it was overly complicated and lacked the ability for him to customize it. He wanted control over his device and applications, something that I had not thought of before.
His next remark made me realize I was on the right track. He told me a story about how his phone had fallen only a foot to the ground and shattered the screen. Ever since he has been extremely protective of his phone and is hesitant to use it without a very large case. The trouble with this is that his phone is integral to his everyday interactions. My candidate checks his email, follows his calendar for all of his positions, plays music, surfs the web and much more every day on his phone. Of these I asked him to break down what was the most useful for him. His calendar and his to-do list were the most important and critical for him. At work in the lab, the calendar notifies him of who is present, times they are working, and events that are happening. His to-do list is shared with other professors as well and he needs to constantly be checking to make sure he is up to date. In a lab setting this can be difficult to do. When operating machines that require precision or his full attention, reading notifications can become quite bothersome.
After the interview with my candidate I could now begin prototyping out the many different ideas that were presented.
The Brainstorm: Top 12 Ideas and the Chosen One
After much brainstorming I settled upon the idea of discreet emergency notifications. Users can set the app to screen all incoming notifications/texts/calls from their phone and then define how they would like to be notified of this. It gives users both the relief of knowing they won't miss something that is important and the flexibility to be notifies in their own way. I chose this because it solves a problem that both of my candidates presented and I feel that it could help out many more people instead of being a niche category.
To prototype my design I laser cut a wood frame and used a rubber bracelet to affix it to the wrist. For the screen, I used sticky notes which allowed for easy display of my ideas as we worked through them. To help me with my design, I had another person in the lab give it a go. I simulated the initial notification and watched how he would try and interact with it. His initial response was to try and dismiss the notification. After successfully receiving it he would either go on with what he was doing or pull out his phone to respond to it. I got a lot of good feedback from him in regards to interfaces and how simplicity is easier when you are notifying. I had originally set up the time of an appointment and the current time but he recommended making it just time till appointment. For text messages as well he recommended being able to read it to judge its importance.
In conclusion, I got a lot of good responses about this idea. I need to refine the project more to make it more focused. Currently it's too broad and could be difficult to manage for some users. In my next steps, I will try and isolate what is most important and what aspects of the application could be considered redundant. Overall, this project is definitely headed in the right direction.
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