Part I: Observation and Interviews
Interview #1: Twenty nine years old bike commuter working in Oakland.
My observation:
The sitting position when biking makes it hard for users to pull out their phone in their pockets. There are phone mounts on bike handle bar, but it is quite hard for cyclist to interact with the phones using their hands. Although I have seen bicyclists using phone while on the street, sometimes by holding the phone, other times by using one ear phone; it is not recommended and is very dangerous for bicyclists to use the phones in such ways. Also depending on the type of bikes, the body positions might vary, especially position of the heads toward the handle bar.
Interviewing :
My interviewee has never used his phone while riding bike. When receiving phone calls, texts or looking up directions, he stops on the side of the road, stands on his legs and pulls out the phone to access information. He often wears skinny jeans which make it difficult to access phone with bigger size. Sometimes, he has to put his phone into his pack bag which prevents him to use the phone completely. He also says that sometimes he has to give his phone to his girlfriend to keep in her purse because he also has to keep his wallet and keys in his pockets.
He uses a mountain bike with moderate distance from his eyes to this wrists. The handle bar style does not intercept his eye sight toward the wrist. The way he grips the handle bar does require him to flick his wrist to be able to see the watch screen. He thinks it will be easier for him if the phone GPS to display directions step by step rather than showing the whole map.
He is also very allergic to garlic and onions, he often wants an app that can quickly give him information about the ingredients on the labels instead of reading through lots of small texts on the labels.
Interview #2: Forty years old banker at Citibank in San Francisco
My observation:
My interviewee is an office worker who drives to Bart and use it to go to his office in San Francisco everyday. He also teaches economics at USF in the evening. I was invited to attend one of his lecture and observe how he teaches using Power Point. He has been having trouble taking advantage of his IPad to control slides. He often finds himself stuck at the podium or has to keep looking back and the screen to be sure the right slide is on.
Interviewing:
He finds most remote controllers too complicated to learn, and he often finds himself using very few button on the controllers. He would like to control his slides and also be able to walk around the classroom and interact with his students. He thinks someone needs to build an app to help him remember students' names. He says that when using the microwave, he often only use the +1 minute button and hopes he can control his phone, tablet, or watch just by tapping it. Also he wants an app to help him keep track of his blood sugar level. He usually finds it inconvenient to measure his blood sugar several times a day by invasive method.
Part II: Brainstorming and Prototyping
Ideas:
1. Flipped screen.
2. GPS showing directions step by step instead of showing the map.
3. Customizing most use apps.
4. Turn on/off and choosing options by tapping on the screen or tap the hand to the hip or any other surface.
5. Scrolling by steering your arm in horizontal position.
6. Adding calories, sodium, carbon-hydrate, protein,... by scanning the label.
7. Saving allergic info and alert if food contains stored allergic ingredients.
8. Metronome for music instrument learners.
9. Heart-rate, blood pressure, blood sugar tracker through the wrist.
10. App to randomly choose a student in the class to answer a question, after the student answered, he/she is removed from the list of students.
11. Lap counter for swimmers and runners.
12. Power Point slide controller by gestures or tapping.
13. Alert when your profile on dating site matches nearby profiles.
14. Typing on any hard surface using vibration from fingers (might need 2 watches, left and right) without the need of keyboard.
I choose to prototype idea #6 because it focus on a small group of people who care about their health. The task described in the idea can also be done better using a smart watch than a smart phone because shoppers tend to have their hand holding merchandises. Also, holding a phone is considered impolite at the table while there are other people present, using a watch will become more subtle.
Some highlight features:
1. The camera is on the bottom allowing scanning item and looking at the screen at the same time.
2. Allowing to set up ingredients or nutrition to track as well as the desired limits.
3. Using MyFitnessPal libraries to input custom items like Peet's coffee or pantries.
4. Adding amount of food by tapping.
5. Alert when the nutrition exceed the limits, or there is allergic ingredients.
6. Do the math for the users.
I go and test my prototype with an UC Berkeley freshman at Walgreen. I asked her to wear the prototype and simulate her shopping experience with the watch.
Feedback:
1. Some users do not really like the bigger screen with bright color because it stands out too much. They think it makes them look too geeky, and they do not like that. They like something to blend in with their outfit or style.
2. When scanning small objects such as a can of coke, it is preferable to keep the hand wearing watch stationary and take the can to the scanner.
3. The ability to choose nutrition is preferred because most users only concern with a few type of nutrition.
4. They prefer the ability to actually store gathered data somewhere to later come back to see.
5. The process of tapping can be tedious if the user have some other food in between the series of the same food. Such as a coke, a hamburger, another coke, another hamburger, then another coke, then another hamburger.
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