Design 01: Watches in the Wild

Part One: Observing and Interviewing

Target Group: 

        University lecturers and elementary school teachers alike want to stay professional and keep control of their students. However, this task is hard to do while holding a smart phone in front of a class. Thus, I decided to interview both an elementary school teacher and university staff member who works in a classroom environment.

Interview One: 

        The first person I interviewed is the manager of the EECS Department Self-Paced Center. Her smart phone is very important to her, so she keeps it in her purse for easy access. Her last experience when she was unable to take out her phone was a potentially dangerous situation. She was walking by herself late at night in Downtown Berkeley, so she wanted to call someone to feel safer. This time, however, she did not take out her phone since the battery was nearly dead. She usually charges her phone at work, but she forgot her charger at home.

        The interviewee was also very enthusiastic about using a smart watch. She could definitely see herself doing basic tasks that she currently performs on her smart phone, such as: checking her emails, using a pedometer, and getting directions. Some smart watch applications she would like to see are: step-by-step GPS directions, a pedometer, and traffic alerts. In fact, she thinks she would prefer a smart watch over her smart phone and would even buy one, but with two caveats. First, it must be able to make calls; whenever she is walking alone at night, she wants to be able to call someone quickly to feel safe. Second, the watch face should not be too big; she must be able to hide the watch easily if she is in a dangerous part of town. Overall, the first interviewee would like to see smart watch apps that keep people safe. Step-by-step GPS directions would help people walking by themselves late at night feel more secure.

Interview Two: 

        The second person I interviewed teaches in a private elementary school in San Francisco. She keeps her smart phone close by in her purse or a jacket pocket. The last time she was unable to take out her phone was during her students' recess. Even though it was not her turn for yard duty, she offered to cover for another teacher. She wanted to send an email while she was out on the playground. Usually when she is out on yard duty, she places it in her pocket. Due to the last second change, she forgot to slip the phone in her pocket.

        The interviewee could imagine herself using a smart watch on a daily basis. She envisions using different swiping gestures to represent commonly used words or phrases to make sending emails much faster and efficient. Furthermore, she would be able to use a smart watch during faculty meetings. She does not want to be rude and pull out her phone to check her email, but if she had the smart watch, she could check without being rude or unprofessional.

         The second interview offered much more insight on specific apps that teachers could use in the classroom. First, she wishes that would be an app that recognizes the people picking up her students. She could store a roster of her students' parents' information and pictures. Then, the watch could indicate if the person picking up the child is actually a parent or guardian. If the face is not recognized, then she could intervene and prevent them from picking up the child. Second, she would like an app that prompted her with cue words or phrases when she teaches her lessons. The smart watch would be discrete enough for teachers to use during class. Even though there are apps for cue cards on smart phones, she cannot just hold a phone in front of her class: this would distract students and limit her movement as a lecturer. 

Similarities across interviews:

        Even though the first interview did not reveal much insight into helping teachers in the classroom, the two interviewees raised concerns about safety. The first interviewee was afraid of using her smart phone in dangerous parts of town at night while the second interviewee hoped for a smart watch app that would help ensure the safety of her students.

Part Two: Brainstorming and Prototyping

Brainstorming Ideas:

1. Presentation Prompts: Input words or phrases to prompt yourself when giving a presentation. Alternatively, the app lets you upload your slides; even if the text is small, just seeing the slide titles can act as cue cards. Using swiping gestures, you can move between slides with ease. In addition, the app has vibrate-only alarms to help the you pace yourself when presenting a lesson or lecture. You can customize the alarms to go off during regular time intervals; you can also have it go off during the last few minutes of lecture to remind you to start wrapping up. 
2. Quick Texts: Enter in commonly used words, phrases, or messages and assign a specific gesture to them in order to speed up sending messages to your contacts.
3. Flashcards to Quiz Questions Generator: Input simple key terms and definitions, and the app will generate quiz questions based on the input. You must give the correct key term given the definition.
4. Keep in Touch: Pick people you want to stay in touch with from your list of contacts. The app keeps track of the last time you contacted each person and reminds you to contact them if it has been a long time since you last spoke or texted. The user gets to determine what is considered a "long time."
5. Safety Check-ins: After a long night out and you find that you have to walk home by yourself, use this app to notify friends when you have arrived safely or if you need help. Input an amount of time for how long it will be until you arrive at your destination. If you do not turn off the notification after the time limit, then the phone automatically sends a text to your selected contact to let them know you need help.
6. Competitor Pricing: Input a list of stores you go to regularly. Then, to figure out what the different stores charge for an item, enter in an item's name. The app lets you know how much it is at each store that carries that item, so you can figure out the cheapest price.
7. Singin' in the Shower: Since Qualcomm Toq is waterproof, you can use it in the shower. Select from a list of songs by swiping across it. After the selection screen, shower karaoke begins. The words scroll across the screen as the instrumental version of your selected song plays.
8. Origami 365: This app gives you a new piece of origami to fold everyday, acting as a virtual origami calendar. Swipe across the watch face to get to the next diagram step.
9. Teaching ABCs & 123s: For younger children, teach basic cursive and printing skills. Using arrows, this app will teach them the proper strokes and movements to make when writing letters. Then, they can trace the letters following the direction of the arrows, and the app will tell them if they are correct. In addition, they can solve basic times tables or other simple equations by simply tracing the number on the face.
10. Memory Games: Another app for younger children, objects will "fall" from the top of the watch "through" the bottom of the watch. The children must count how many of the different objects fall and enter the number at the end of the game. There may even be multiple kinds of objects falling, and they have to say how many there are of one kind of object, of two kinds, or even all objects together. The difficulty may be adjusted depending on the age group.
11. Face Identifier: Input people's contact information as well as as their pictures. When you encounter someone from your address book, your watch will prompt you with their name and any other information you noted about them.
12. Safety Sounds: If you are in danger or being attacked, press down on the watch screen and it will automatically turn the volume to the max and play a loud message asking people to come to your aid. By pressing or swiping in different gestures, you can customize it: it could play different messages, set off a loud high pitched sound to scare off your attacker, or automatically notify 911 of your location and send them a prerecorded message that you need help.

Selected Idea: 

        After my brainstorm, Idea (1): Presentation Prompts, seemed like the most useful app for my target group of teachers. Unlike using a smart phone in class, this smart watch app would allow teachers to be professional in the classroom, prevent their students from getting distracted, and act as a discrete way for teachers to receive quick and helpful prompts during their lectures while still allowing them to move freely.

Creating the prototype: 

        My smart watch prototype is made of cardboard, tape, and many Post-It notes. I started by creating a quick layout of the different screens I envisioned for my app. Then, I used Sharpies and Post-It notes to create the watch screens that users could use when testing my prototype. 

Testing the Prototype:

        My app, "Presentation Pop!" is meant to be used by teachers, so I asked two former CS instructors to test it out.

Test One: Former Reader and TA for CS 61AS

List of Insights: 

• Counterintuitive Gestures: The tutorial screen has a list of gestures to guide app users. For example, it says "swipe up" to scroll up the page and "swipe down" to scroll down. However, the user suggested that I switch these gestures since many touch-screen and Mac users would find this counterintuitive. Similarly, rather than "pinching with your fingers" to zoom in, he suggested that it should instead be "stretching apart your fingers."
  
• Confusing Exit Gesture: Another gesture has users draw out an "X" to exit the app. The user was confused as to how he should draw out the symbol. He inquired, "Do I cross my fingers to draw this as well as draw both lines at the same time?" In future prototypes, I will use numbers to indicate steps for drawing out the "X" gesture.
• Good Use of Expanding Folders: The user noted that when he opened another folder [when selecting a PowerPoint file], the previously opened file closed. He liked this design choice. Because space is so limited on smart watch screens, any previously expanded folders should be closed when expanding another folder; this should be kept in a future prototype. 
• Misleading Title: The file selection screen was topped with an "Upload" title. This error was caught when the user said, "Do you mean 'uploaded' or 'selected'?" The redesign will instead have the title of "File Select" so as not to confuse any users who think they are uploading files when they are really just selecting which one they will use for their lecture.
• Too Detailed Selection Screen: The alarm selection screen was packed with too much text. To cut down on the text, the user suggested removing the "no alarms" button. Since app users can select multiple or no items from a check list of alarms, then not selecting one indicates that they do not want to use the alarm settings. 

Test Two: Former Reader, TA, and Lecturer for CS 10

List of insights:

• Gesture Arrows: On the home screen, the user noted that a circle at the start of the arrow would help indicate where you should put your finger to begin the swiping gesture.  Future prototypes will include this circle feature wherever any other similar gestures appear. 
  
• Buttons vs. Arrows: On the file selection screen, the user suggested using buttons rather than arrows for each file. The arrows would mislead users to perform swiping gestures rather than clicking actions. The user explained that buttons would be a much better indicator that you should click on the files to expand them. However, he also noted that it is a bit awkward to use both clicking and swiping gestures when the app has purely used swiping gestures up to this point. Consistency would help prevent confusing the users.
• Setting Time of Lecture: Rather than using a drop-down menu to select a start and end time for the lecture, the user suggested using a clock interface that lets you move the hour and minute hands. Underneath the clock, have two buttons that let you select either AM or PM. He showed me this interface on his smart phone, and said that it would work much better on a smart watch interface. In addition, he also noted that I had not included a screen to indicate the ending time of the lecture. 
• Viewing Slides vs. Setting Up Lecture: The user pointed out that it would be helpful to have two additional options on the home screen. One button should let you view a presentation to look over your slides before a lecture. The other button would let you go into the details of setting up your lecture.
• Timer on Screen During Presentation: A small timer in the corner of the app would help the lecturer pace himself throughout the presentation. The user even suggested having a pie chart to keep track of time as another alternative. It would slowly "fill up," or turn, red based on how much time you have left in your lecture. For example, if your lecture is one hour long, then it would be 50% red after half an hour. The user suggested that this would allow the lecturer to quickly glance at the watch to see a visual estimate of their time remaining.
• Restart Presentation: At the end of the presentation, there should be an additional option that allows you to restart the presentation. You should not have to return all the way to your main menu to access your presentation.