Part 1
Before going out into the field, I thought about which demographic would be most likely to find themselves in situations where accessing their mobile phones would be inconvenient and decided to target food/customer service workers because their hands are probably full, literally, while working and interacting with their phone would be out of the question. In addition, many of them are non-college students and there is an abundance of them in the college town of Berkeley. From the get go, interviewing this demographic was particularly difficult, though I do not have much to based it off of. This was because workers in the restaurants close to campus were extremely busy, even during off hours, which made me feel guilty and them more hesitant. However, I discovered that they were more willing if I made a purchase, which I used to my advantage. Also, some of my interviewees exhibited nervousness from being put on the spot or feeling awkward about not having any ideas. Despite all that and having been turned away a few times, I was able to gather relatively useful user research from three different users.
Top Dog
This user keeps his phone charging behind the fridge away from the grill for safety reasons, which is not very accessible. One thing that he does on his phone on a regular basis is playing Chess with Friends, which is a game similar to Word with Friends, but with chess. His friend makes a move, which shows up as a notification on his phone, and he makes his move and so forth until the game is over. It is difficult to reach his phone when he hears the phone buzz, especially when he is cooking or serving the hot dogs. When asked if he could imagine playing Chess with Friends on a miniature screen on his wrist, he said, “That would be awesome.” He was concerned about the lighting of the screen so the smart watch screen would have to be like that of a kindle minimizes glare. He also said it would be cool if he could make his move without touching the screen at all, which could imply something like a sensor that senses gestures above the screen. One application of the smart watch he thought was cool is if he could use the smart watch and bump it with another mobile device or smart watch as some kind of payment system. Another application of the smart watch he mentioned was a facial recognition app on the watch that could remember who ordered what kind of hot dog and display it somehow so he wouldn’t have to remember it all in his head.
Cream
This user keeps her phone in the back counter because the store policy does not allow her to carry her mobile phone around, probably for sanitary issues. The two main things she wished she could use during work are text messaging and Instagram. Since she is handling the cookies and scooping ice cream, she wears plastic gloves and it is a hassle to take them off and put them back on to use her phone, if she had the free time to not be greeting customers. When asked to imagine the smart watch on her wrist, she mentioned this issue and wanted to be able to read her texts without using her hands at all. This would imply a capability that handles voice interaction, such as opening texts, reading and writing a message, sending texts to specific users, and etc. Additionally, she said she does not use Instagram as much at work, but when asked to imagine it, she said it would be cool to be able to take a picture that pops out and then save it without have to touch the screen, of course. She voiced some concern over the fact that the screen would be too small to do all the Instagram-y things on one’s wrist.
Musical Offering Café
This user keeps her phone in her pocket because business tends to be slow and so she has a lot of downtime to do things on her phone. She does not use her phone much other than checking her messages and taking calls. However, she emphasized strongly that if she were to use a smart watch for those functions, the watch must be very waterproof. I assume this is because she interacts frequently with hot coffee and a steamer.
*All interviewees consented to their picture-taking
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Part 2
Brainstorm
- application that lets users bump smart watch to smart watch or smart watch to another mobile device to assess fees and simplify the payment process
- application that implements facial recognition software that lets restaurant workers more easily remember who ordered what
- application that detects the temperature of food/liquids from the outside to better customize how hot or cold customers want their food to be
Specific Goal: Improved Messages application for people who work in restaurants or with food and require a hands-free experience
- voice activation to open messages followed by more voice interaction, such as the user saying “create message…”
- sensors on the watch that senses specific hand gestures to open messaging app followed by handwriting enabled messaging, so for example, the user will flash a specific hand signal to open the app and then handwrite their message on a projected screen sensitive to touch
- sensors that sense specific hand gestures for all messaging functions (ie: sign language to “type” out letters)
- watch has a screen that is projected like a hologram at all times and has handwritten enabled messaging capabilities
- screen that is projected like a hologram at all times but has a keyboard interface sensitive to touch
- the user will hover their finger over a sensor which reads the fingerprint and unlocks the messaging app if the fingerprint is a match; interaction is followed via voice detection methods
- sensor that detects eye movement and opens after you look at the camera hole for longer than some user-set number of seconds and then types out individual letters based on the direction at which your eye is focused on
- detects a voiced catchphrase that prompts screen to turn on followed by voice interaction, such as the user saying “create message…”
- detects a voiced catchphrase to open messages and then projects holographic screen that user interacts with
- sensor that reads fingerprint to unlock messages and then projects holographic screen that user interacts with
- screen that is optimized for touchscreen using the knuckles instead of the finger so that users can use the messaging app without dirtying the part of the hand that often handles food
- screen that is optimized for touchscreen with gloves on with the same purpose as the previous idea
Favorite Idea
My favorite idea is a watch that detects a voiced catchphrase to unlock and open messages and then to project a holographic screen that the user interacts with to send messages because it is intuitive and familiar to most users and does not require the user to touch the physical screen of the watch.
Prototype
The first stumble my tester experienced was immediate: at the home screen. Instead of saying "OK Toq," she said "OK T-O-Q" due to my all caps spelling. I can fix that by changing the catchphrase to something more recognizable, such as "OK watch." On the next screen, my one and only example voice command was "open messages," which she used, but after the test, she said since it was the only sample command present, she thought it was the only available command. The reason I only put down one sample command was the size constraint of the screen. When she got to the messages, she said the rest was intuitive and that the fake holographic keyboard was a cool idea, but somewhat awkward to use because it was a traditional QWERTY keyboard, but only one hand was free to type. To improve that, perhaps the keyboard can be one that is optimized for single-hand typing.
Summary of Insights
1. Users are heavily influenced by the suggestions/examples on the screen when interacting with new applications or apps with a different design flow. Therefore, these suggestions should be extremely explicit yet generic at the same time.
2. Conventional technology in a new setting doesn't always work. The QWERTY keyboard we have now was designed for two hands so the watch setting where one hand is completely useless renders this keyboard useless as well.
3. It is better to have too many sticky note stages than too few. I found that during my user testing, even when the action (ie: messaging) is a very familiar process, missing one stage here and there makes the process very clunky. Next time, I would expand it out more thoroughly, even if it is just a simple change in the UI.
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