The Interviews
Interview 1: Chris
Chris is a mobile phone software developer living and working in San Francisco. He is an avid cyclist and is always looking for new things to do in and around town.
Recall the last time you did not have your phone readily available. What information were you looking for? Why couldn't you get to your phone?
Biking to work, felt vibration in his pocket.
Could have been something important like a meeting that he was missing.
Could you imagine performing this action on your wrist?
Could read the subject on a watch, but not more than that, given the screen size.
Where do you keep you normally keep your phone? At work? At home?
Usually keeps it in his pocket,
But at work its on his desk.
Sometimes he has it in his backpack.
How could a smartwatch be helpful while you’re on your daily ride to work? Or weekend ride around town?
It could be a microphone for voice control and phone calls.
It could send texts with voice recognition.
It could notify him what time he will be to work/what time to leave on his bike, given that the watch knows how fast he goes to and from work (it’s downhill one way, uphill the other way).
If he were to see an email on his watch, he would want the subject to be visible. But if there was something else important, like a calendar invite, he would want to know about this over the subject.
How could a smartwatch be helpful to you at work?
He leaves his phone on his desk during work and frequently forgets it when leaving to go to lunch or go home. If his watch could notice this it could notify him that he is leaving without his phone.
Any other cool things you think a smartwatch could help you achieve? What about around town on the weekends?
When walking around town on the weekend, it would be cool if he were notified of deals or events nearby his location, somewhat like Google Now. When receiving notification on his phone while walking or riding, he ignores them until he reaching his destination, and at this point would have moved far past the interesting landmark.
Also, quick access to when busses are coming by nearby bus stops to help him plan in car-less commute.
What I learned from Chris
Biking and using a phone don't work well, there are many opportunities for a watch here.
Forgetting your phone is a common occurrence, a watch may be able to help with this.
There isn’t much room on a watch to show large amounts of text etc. Subjects, dates, and events are important to people.
Voice recognition makes sense to people on a watch.
Interview 2: Katie
Katie is a nurse in San Francisco and is new to the area.
Recall the last time you did not have your phone readily available. What information were you looking for? Why couldn't you get to your phone?
GPS wouldn't load while using it in the car, needed directions quickly and it failed.
Could you imagine performing this action on your wrist?
Sure, but connection would have still been poor.
Where do you keep you normally keep your phone? At work? At home?
She usually keeps it in her pocket, and is not allowed to use her phone while at work.
However, nurses are required to wear a watch while on the job to take pulse.
How could a smartwatch be helpful to you at work?
Nurses are required to have a watch while at work. It must be an analog watch face.
Frequently nurses need to verify thing like the compatibility of drugs or allergies of a certain patient. This requires calling someone on a nearby hospital phone to look up the information. If she could simply ask her watch verbally for this information that would be extremely useful to her.
As a nurse, she has to frequently log patient data and information. If she could do that by simply speaking notes to her watch this would be helpful to her.
Nurses have to communicate with other nurses and doctors using radios that they all carry. If this functionality was built into her watch, this would be useful to her.
Nurses have to use an RFID card to get access to different parts of the hospital and access drugs from cabinets etc. If her watch could do this then she wouldn’t have to wear her RFID badge.
She prefers attractive watches with metal bands and jewelry, this would be a requirement for her to wear the watch outside of work.
What I learned from Katie
A smartwatch would be extremely beneficial to nurses; they use a number of older technologies that could all be bundled into a smartwatch.
A smartwatch is great for work, but would need to look a good as normal jewelry watches to be worn outside of work.
- People like the idea of a smartwatch while on-the-go (in a car or on a bike).
Interview 3: Ken
Ken works in sales and marketing for a soap and lotion company. He was in the area helping his daughter (Katie) move into her new place.
Recall the last time you did not have your phone readily available. What information were you looking for? Why couldn't you get to your phone?
iPhone would not unlock even after rebooting and he needed to access his email on the go.
Could you imagine performing this action on your wrist?
Yes, if he could have viewed his email on his wrist this would have solved the problem.
Where do you keep you normally keep your phone? At work? At home?
Keeps phone in his pocket/on his hip.
Does not take phone out much during work, disrespectful to do so while talking with customers all day.
How could a smartwatch be helpful to you at work?
Ken thought it would be great if he could get notifications only relating to a small number of important people in his life while at work. This way there would be minimal interruptions while talking with customers, it would be on his wrist so he would not have to rudely take out his phone, and they would be important because they would be only from people in his life that he has deemed as important people.
How else my a smartwatch help improve your life?
If it could somehow improve the voice quality of speaker phone calls by using the watch microphone (or both).
Also, sending voice text messages in the car doesnt work for him because he mounts his phone too far away to hear him. If the watch microphone could be used to pick up his voice then he would be able to make voice text messages.
What I learned from Ken
People think the car is a great place for a smartwatch; its is closer to your mouth for voice recognition and easier to look at than a phone (also legal).
Bombarding someones wrist with notifications (especially while busy at work), isn’t an appealing proposition. Being able to specify what types of notifications to receive and/or who the notification is associated with would be valuable control.
In many cases the watch could replace the phone, especially at times when the phone isn’t working or is acting strange.
Idea Brainstorm
An app that notifies you when you leave work or home without your phone.
An app that lets you know how close you are to your destination, and when you should leave etc. while on a biking commute and accessing your phone is difficult. Also provides map, speed and other biking analytics, like a bike computer on your wrist.
An app that notifies you on your wrist when you are walking by good deals or events around town on the weekends.
An app that notifies you when nearby buses are coming that would be able to take you home/back to work after lunch etc.
A smartwatch app for nurses which allows them to easily take a patient's pulse, access different parts of the building, look up and record patient data, and communication with fellow nurses. Note: the watch would have to function without a phone since phones are not allowed while working.
A smartwatch that comes with different bands, bracelets and other jewelry that actually match the smartwatch itself.
An app or functionality that allowed the owner of the watch to only get certain types of notifications from certain people while at work or while sleeping etc.
A smartwatch that was smart enough to use the microphone of the watch while in speakerphone call to improve call quality.
A smartwatch that would automatically unlock the phone when it sense it being picked up by the wearer.
An app or calendar extension that notifies you of when your schedule changes (ie: your meeting gets moved) and automatically adjusts your normal commute times and shows you when to leave the house etc.
An app that passively listened for questions or problems, attempts to find the answer (using the internet, your calendar schedule etc.), and if successful notifies you that it may have a solution.
A smartwatch used to improve navigation app responsiveness by knowing instantly when you make a turn using the accelerometer to monitor your steering.
Prototype
I decided to prototype my second idea, and call it Bike Buddy. I chose this idea because a smartwatch being used as a bicycle companion came up many times with different people. Also, lots of people can relate to it and give me quality feedback. I fleshed out the idea to be the following: a smartwatch app that it notifies you when you should leave to get to work on time with a notification on your wrist. Then, if the notification is tapped, it brings the user to a fully fledged bike computer. Below is a walkthrough of my prototype and The Bike Buddy application.
Feedback
Johnson is a visiting scholar at Berkeley and uses a bicycle as his main form of transportation. He wears a watch on a daily basis and is intrigued by the idea of a smartwatch. Below are the notes from his interaction and feedback of the application.
Johnson's thoughts on the watch prototype itself:
- He likes the adjustability of the velcro.
- However, he thinks the velcro and wire overpower the weak cardboard. He would have used a different fabric for this part.
- He think's its too large, he would like a smaller version closer to the size of his watch.
Johnson's thoughts on the first notification screen with the watch face:
- He's not sure how to launch apps, can he swipe to different screens?
- He would like to see the current battery of the watch on the home screen.
- He would like to be able to see the current weather outside.
- He thinks the notification should not obstruct the time.
Johnson's thoughts on the second screen, which is the main screen of Bike Buddy:
- Can you click on these past rides? Does it do anything when I click on them?
- He thinks the maps are too small to see. Maybe when you click on them they could enlarge?
- When clicking on the notification it should start the ride automatically, or else the notification is pointless.
Johnson's thoughts on the last screen, the one seen while on a bike ride:
- He thinks things should be larger so that they are glance-able while riding a bike.
- He doesn't care for the date while on the bike ride, this could be removed.
- Map should be more zoomed in around current location.
- Map should auto orient based on his heading.
- He should know his estimated arrival time.
- He would like a reminder about tire pressure, it's something he always forgets to check before a ride.
- He is wondering if there are novel ways of improving safety with the watch, maybe leaving it locked to your bike?
What I learned from Johnson's feedback
When making future prototypes I need to be more careful about my selected materials. The base of the watch (the band itself) was the weakest of the materials which made the entire system flimsy. Also, the whole watch could have been smaller.
The watch face needs to have more information on it, Johnson recommended things like battery life and weather. Some other things that may be useful are connection status and strength, and upcoming calendar events.
The main screen of the app is somewhat complicated. First, the notification message doesn't lend itself to the first screen of the app; pressing the notification should start a new ride automatically. Also, the maps are too small on this already small screen. Instead, there should be a map button which brings up a full screen map for each ride.
The final screen that is shown while the ride is in progress should focus primarily on glance-ability. There is no need for the date; bike riders are not looking for this information. Also, the map itself should be zoomed in closer to the rider, because too zoomed out of a map is useless when simply glancing. Additional information that should be portrayed on this screen includes: the orientation that the rider is facing, the estimated arrival time, and possibly the estimated tire pressure.
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