Part One: Interviews
I decided to interview people on campus on Saturday, since it was Game Day and there were a lot of older people walking around.
Interview 1:
The first person I interviewed is a 50 year old air traffic controller. According to him, he is old school and needs to be taught how to use technology sometimes. For him, learning how to use a technology has to be intuitive (he went from a flip phone to a Samsung Galaxy 5 recently). He doesn't use a lot of apps, just the weather app, alarm app, texting and email.
The last time he wanted to access his smartphone and couldn't, he was in his car. He always keeps his phone on vibrate (to avoid having it ring at the wrong time) and he leaves it next to him in the passenger seat. He cannot look at it or be distracted by it while driving; according to him, "a phone is a device that doesn't control [him]." He usually keeps his phone in his holster, and if he doesn't have that with him, he keeps it in his pocket. While at work, he puts his phone in his locker, and while at home, he keeps his phone beside him. When it's in his pocket, he keeps his hand in his pocket at all times so he can feel the vibration of his phone (since it's always on vibrate).
The task he wanted to do when he couldn't access his phone was read and reply to his texts. He wanted to check his phone real fast, he said, meaning he wanted to read his text message and see if it was important enough for him to need to respond to. In the car, he has to pull over to the side of the road to use his phone. He also mentioned that at work, he would have to go to the break room to use his phone. He has to make an effort to access his phone at any time when in his car or at work.
When asked to imagine reading and responding to a text on a wrist worn interface touchscreen, he imagined seeing the text "Message from" with the sender's name, so it would say "Message from Tom." Underneath that would be two buttons, "reply" if he would like to reply to the text then, and "later" if he wanted to ignore the message at that point. He was concerned about the size constraints of such a watch and mentioned that it would be difficult for older and visually-impaired people to read and type on. He imagined using voice activation that would translate speech to text input in order to reply to a text, so everything could be done hands-free. He expressed interest in wanting an intelligent personal assistant like Siri.
Interview 2:
The second person I interviewed is a 62 year old retired financial analyst. The last time she didn't have her phone readily available and wanted to access it was when she was at home
According to her, she is addicted to her phone and can't leave it alone. She usually keeps her phone in her pocket, and if she doesn't have pockets she puts it in her purse or keeps it in her hand.
At home, she wanted to check the weather. She wanted to be able to click a button that would tell her how chilly it was, and whether she should wear a jacket outside when she left home.
She was concerned of the small size of the smart watch and battery life consumption. She expressed that she wanted voice recognition that is smarter than Siri.
What I learned from the interviews:
The air traffic controller has to make an effort to pull out his phone - stop at the side of the street to glance at a text, or go to the break room at work. When not at work, he keeps his hand in his pocket at all times to see if his phone vibrates so he can glance at it. He was concerned about visually-impaired and old people who may have a rough time looking at a small screen. The retired financial analyst wanted to be able to operate the phone with voice recognition for ease of use (not having to use a tiny keyboard). I gleaned that both interviewees were concerned about small screen sizes and both wanted an intelligent personal assistant to be implemented, like Apple’s Siri to do tasks for them.
Part Two: Prototyping
Brainstorming:
1) Messages app: uses voice recognition to translate voice into text and send
2) Voice Memo app: records lectures while taking notes
3) Phone app: receives voice input from a microphone in the watch and has a speaker in the watch
4) Venmo app: uses voice recognition to pay or charge someone on friends list, “Pay Jasper $5”
5) Find My iPhone app: connects to phone and makes it ring when lost/misplaced
6) Alarm Clock app: after turning morning alarm off, weather app will give a suggestion on what to wear, “take an umbrella,” “you can wear shorts today,” “dress warm”
7) Facebook app: shows the people around you (via bluetooth) and allows you to connect with them (if not your friends) or see their about me page (if your friends)
8) Email app: uses an algorithm to find the keywords of an email and alerts by vibration about important emails
9) Shazam app: always on, looks up a song when you say something along the lines of “What’s this song?”
10) Uber app: calls a taxi to your location based on GPS after making a “taxi whistle”
11) Calendar app: calculates, using maps app integration, when and where your event is and how long it will take for you to walk there based on gps (ex. CS 160 306 Soda 30 min. Travel time: 20 min)
12) Embark iBart app: finds the fastest route to your destination via Bart based on GPS and gives directions to destination through a speaker
Prototype Choice: #6, Alarm Clock app
I decided to choose the alarm clock app with weather integration since it supports a fast, busy lifestyle (such as Interviewee #1's) and allows users to make a better decision on what to wear in preparation for the weather (as Interviewee #2 wanted).
I made the face of the watch with cardboard, and added each frame on a post-it. I attached a post-it with a speech bubble where the smart watch's intelligent personal assistant would speak the what to wear/take suggestion out loud. The strap of the watch is made with duct tape folded in half, and looped through two holes made in the cardboard.
User Feedback:
Since this app would be used when waking up and getting ready, I asked a few people who live in my house to use the prototype.
The first user suggested that I put the date on the alarm screen, because she wants to know what the date is when she opens up her phone after waking up. She thought that the button for turning off the alarm is too small. She wanted the option for Celsius temperature to appear on the weather page also, since the weather is only given in degrees Fahrenheit.
The second user thought that the weather screen looked unbalanced with the temperature on one side and the picture on the other. She suggested that the picture of the umbrella be the background, and the temperature would be overlaid and centered. She stated that it was unclear on how to get back to the home screen.
What I learned from the user feedback:
I initially considered listing the date on the alarm page but decided against it since I assumed the most important feature of this page would be the time. The first user helped me realize that the date is important as well, since she said it is a visual reminder of the tasks that need to be done in that day. If she wanted to look up the date, she would have to go to the home screen. She made a valid point that there should be an option to see temperature in degrees Celsius, since Fahrenheit is mainly used in the US. This would suit the needs of users who use Celsius measurements. I learned that the weather page looked visually unbalanced, and I agree that it would look a lot cleaner if the picture became the background, over which the temperature is overlaid. I realized I neglected to create a button that led to the home screen.
I learned that my users should not just be limited to those who understand the Fahrenheit scale; I need to understand the needs of all users, not just those around me. Having the date on the home screen and not on the alarm screen is not consistent, so I would have to listen to what my users want and not base that decision off of what I think is needed or not needed - although I don't care about seeing the date when I wake up, there are users who do. I should have considered more how the weather page looked visually, and whether it was balanced. Other than that, the users thought the UI was simple and intuitive.
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