Inspiration:
I wanted to determine through observing people in the gym and through interviewing them if some of the interactions with our smart phones at the gym would be better experienced through a wrist worn interface. I interviewed three individuals, one who declined to take a photo with me. Additionally, I "soft" interviewed individuals throughout the week to gain insight into how they might use a smart watch in the gym. Half of the people I talked to did not like to use their phones in the gym as it was not integral to their exercise regimen, and the others ran into hands free issues which I will delve into after the brainstorming section. My findings are as follows:
User Research - Interviewing Gym Members:
Interview 1:
Interviewee 1 is a 29 year old bartender and artist. While at the gym, she currently uses an iPhone 5s encased in an armband on her left arm. She has had problems with the armband and ear bud hindering her movement when doing a bridge or when using the elliptical when reaching across her body to check notifications on her IPhone or to change a song. That is, the cord gets tangled on the machine or her arms, the phone falls up to 3 feet away on the ground, she has to completely stop her exercise to retrieve the phone. She would prefer a plastic type material over metal to have on her wrist and exercise in because of the bridges she normally performs. She is primarily concerned with a minimalist interaction with a smart watch that would provide motion gesturing or voice control to play songs and not have to look at her phone during exercise. As far as notifications goes, she only would like to see very important ones displayed to her on a watch interface during exercise.
Interview 2:
Interviewee 2 is 28 and currently works at AT&T and the gym I interviewed her at. She uses a Samsung Galaxy 5 and usually has it in her pocket when exercising at the gym. She has several different playlists with both slow and upbeat songs. When she is exercising on the stair-stepper she has to stop her workout in order to change songs when a slower one comes on. Often when she is doing this, her hands are sweaty and changing a song takes longer because the screen on her Galaxy becomes less responsive. If she unsuccessfully attempts to unlock her phone 3 times while doing this, her screen locks for an entire minute and she loses track of her workout information stored on the star-stepper. She is concerned with having to touch a smart watch screen interface and would rather use voice control to say "next or next song" in her playlist or use a hand/motion gesture such as snapping her fingers to change to a more upbeat song.
Interview 3:
Interviewee 3 declined to take a picture with me but gave me some great insight nonetheless. She is a 24 year old who works at an advertising agency in the Bay. She also uses an IPhone encased in a sleeve attached to her left bicep. While performing barbell squats, a song which does not motivate her starts to play and she often tries to change the song mid-exercise, thus, losing her balance and nearly almost dropping the weights in her hands. She also expressed how frustrating it is to reach across her body with her right hand to change a song on her IPhone through the case and either have the song not change or have the IPhone fall out of the sleeve and onto the ground. She actually owns a Pebble smart watch which does not utilize touch screen or voice control functionality. She is concerned with the battery life of watch and has never used it at the gym because it is white and she does not know if it will or want to get it dirty by using it at the gym. She explained that she would like to use a wrist/hand gesture to change to the next song in her playlist because it is difficult to hit next on the IPhone music player unless both of her hands are free.
Common Themes:
Throughout my research and interviews, I noticed some commonalities among people who use their smart phones while in the gym. Most do not want their phone to take away from their exercise but many are hindered as a result of not having both hands free. When an interruption such as the phone falling or needing to change a song occurs, everyone has to stop the exercise they are performing. This results in them losing focus, concentration, and motivation to the exercise at hand. It is also very dangerous in some cases for a person to interact with their phone as people lose balance, start to multi-task and risk injuring themselves or others at the gym. Therefore, I am designing a smart watch app for hands free capability in the fitness exercise environment. I believe my design will improve these people’s lives through increasing their body and heart rate awareness which ultimately affects exercise adherence and self-efficacy.
Can the user experience of interacting with applications on our phones be improved via a smart watch?
Brainstorming:
Collaborator: Berke Brown
1. Redesign music application interface to be more user friendly
2. Audible warning messages if target heart rate is too high
3. Motivational messages if target hear rate is too low (keep on pushing harder! Etc.)
4. Twist right and left to change songs in playlist left and right respectively
5. Custom voice commands to execute user-defined actions
6. Audible alarm when entering target heart rate
7. Custom gesturing to change songs
8. Twist wrist up to change to next song in playlist
9. Songs that increase the beats per minute (bpms) as the heart rate increases
10. Songs that increase the bpms as heart rate zones are reached
11. As heart rate reaches a user-defined threshold, notifications stop as to not distract the user
12. Personal motivation messages displayed or read to user when breaking into higher target heart rate zones ( You are doing this for your kid, health etc.)
13. User-defined restriction on what applications can forward notifications to user
14. Same types of restrictions applied to the incoming messages, social updates, and emails dependent upon who the sender is.
My favorite idea (#9) is to make an application that the current song chosen is based on the song's bpms in relationship to the user's current heart rate. I chose this because it seems like song selection and motivation are a common concern among people who currently use smart phone apps.
Prototyping:
My prototype starts as a simple smart watch displaying one possible "normal" watch looking display. The button in the center opens a main menu. The main menu has time, temp, battery life, notifications in the top left and application names (I am not artistic and would have application pngs and not just words) and the music application can be opened in it. In the music application the user can view their HR, time, song title, and play/pause, forward, next, repeat, and shuffle buttons. There is a back button in the top left common in android apps. I believe that if the user is able to use voice control when the watch is near one's mouth, and/or simply tap on the watch in situations like running or using the elliptical that this will generate a better hands-free experience when switching between songs in a playlist.
User Feedback:
The feedback I received was good. The person I asked suggested that I have one screen for music in the app and to swipe left to display the heart rate and possibly notification information to reduce screen clutter and preserve precious screen real estate. This was a good lesson on maintaining a simple, thoughtful, and aesthetically pleasing user experience.
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