Part 1:
In thinking about who to interview, I decided I wanted to focus on a specific age group of non-college students. As a college student, I use my smartphone all the time for so many things, but I wanted to find out how people in my age group really use their phones. I interviewed young (in their 20s) employees of stores around Berkeley.
My first interview was with Urban Outfitters employee Jeremy (name changed). The first thing I took notice of was that he had a low-end Android phone. Because many of my friends and I use iPhones or nice Android phones, I forget a lot of the time that there are quite a bit of people who are accustomed to a simple smartphone. Jeremy told me that he doesn't use his smartphone for very much. Besides the basic phone functions like calling and texting, he uses Maps a lot to get around. He didn't particularly find much use for a smartwatch because to him, pulling his phone out of his pocket is not a lot of trouble, and he doesn't use his phone very much. Additionally, he doesn't like to wear a watch because he thinks it feels weird on his wrist and doesn't like how most watches look.
My biggest takeaway from this was that Jeremy owns a smartphone but uses its features to a very limited degree. I own an iPhone and use different apps all the time, but perhaps owning a lower-end phone changes the degree to which we use it. Unfortunately, I also realized that not everybody can come around to using wearables, even if it's just a smartwatch. If Jeremy never likes to wear a regular watch, I wouldn't expect him to ever want to wear a smartwatch.
My next interview was with Jack (name changed) from Bancroft Clothing Co. Jack owns an iPhone and said that he found himself using it for a lot of things. His biggest uses for his phone are music, mail, texting, and various other apps. He keeps his phone in his pocket, but he definitely noticed the inconveniences caused by having to take his phone out of his pocket every time he needed to use it. His recent frustrating experiences have been taking his phone out while changing the music on his iPhone, checking his email or texts, and missing calls or notifications when he didn't feel the phone vibrate.
For a user like Jack, there seems to be a lot of value in owning a smartwatch. It seems like for the most basic tasks, taking out a phone repeatedly is a nuisance. After hearing some of the things Jack mentioned, I also realized similar instances in my own life, most notably changing the music on my phone, checking my email, or reading a text.
My last interview was with Rachel (name changed). Rachel owned a low-end Android phone as well which she described as "not very smart". As it did with Jeremy, I think that owning a lower-end phone discourages people from using all of a smartphone's features. Rachel said that she only uses her phone for calls, messaging, and email. An interesting point brought up was that she keeps her phone in her purse, and this causes a whole new set of difficulties not present for anyone keeping their phone in their pocket. The first was that you can't have your phone on vibrate, otherwise you won't hear it in your bag. She also said that there is sometimes trouble retrieving the phone from her bag, especially with a lot of things in it. Her biggest issues with the phone were missing calls because of fumbling around in her bag, or taking it out repeatedly for texting/emailing back and forth with somebody.
Summary:
My biggest takeaway from these interviews was that (based on my sample size of 3) there are a lot of people who use low-end smartphones and don't take advantage of the full set of features. Second was that most people, whether or not they do own a nicer smartphone, still spend most of their time on a few basic features and apps -- mail, messaging, music, and maybe even maps. I realized a lot of shortcomings of the phone in these interviews that also apply to me, and from this I've brainstormed some ideas for new apps on a smartwatch:
1. Mail app - check mail quickly when you receive a new email
2. Messaging app - check and reply to messages easily when you receive a notification
3. Voice calls - talk to people with hands free instead of with your phone
4. Spotify/Music app - easily change/pause the song playing from your phone
5. Maps - maps view on watch to prevent needing the hold your phone while using it
6. Reminders - set and receive reminders on your watch so you don't miss the vibration
7. Sports app - check live scores and play by play on your watch
8. Web Browser - visit bookmarks on the web with a "watch view"
9. Guitar Tuner - plays a sound from your watch to tune your guitar or other instrument
10. Pedometer - tracks your movement/steps throughout the day
11. Camera - never miss a photo opportunity by having a watch right on your wrist
12. UPS app - check your order status and get delivery updates on your watch
13. Calendar app - conveniently have your schedule on your wrist with reminders
14. Flashlight - quickly get a light out when you need it urgently
15. Payments - pay for items using your watch instead of having to get a credit card out
Part 2:
With these ideas in mind, I chose to design a Spotify app for a watch. I chose this one because it is very relevant to me, and based on Jack's comments, to others as well. I get very frustrated with needing my phone out to change my music all the time while walking and a watch that does this job could make this process much easier.
For my Spotify app, I focused on the core features of the iPhone app, mainly: going forward, back, or pausing from the home screen, searching through music, selecting songs, and scrolling through time in a song. At every screen, I additionally kept the currently playing song shown on the bottom of the screen, with the option to swipe left or right to go forward or back, and a pause button on the right.
I tested this out on my friend and asked him to first go through the menus and pick a song to play so he could understand the flow of the app. I then asked him to interact with the app as if he were just walking around while listening to music and describe what actions he wanted to do. Some things he mentioned were:
-skip through songs from the home screen
-select a new song through the app
-increase/decrease the volume
-shuffle play
-skip backwards in a song
Insights:
While I tried to make the app as simple as possible since it is to be used on a small screen, I missed out on a few key things that a user may want. Volume control is a pretty critical feature that I completely missed when designing the app -- I should have this function available at any point like I do the ability to change the song. Shuffle play seems relevant and like something I would want to have available. One last thing was that he was not very clear at first on how to change the song (by swiping left or right) in the window at the bottom of the screen. I could improve the design to make it more obvious to the user how to perform this task.
A related point my friend brought up when using the app was that he wanted to go straight from the home screen to the app but wasn't sure how to do that. I told him assume the home screen works the same way as a smartphone's does, so he swiped right (like an iPhone) but did not know whether he would see the app first. This seems to be maybe a design question for the operating system to handle, but if I did want to solve this problem I could add a way to indicate to the user that swiping a certain way would take them directly into the music app.
List of features to add/redesign:
-volume control
-make it obvious to the user how to go back and forth through songs while on menu screens, or add forward/back buttons instead of using the swiping
-make it clear how to go straight to the app from the home screen, or maybe the smartwatch doesn't need a homescreen at all and can simply stay on the 'song playing' screen as the user continues with his or her life
Comments