Part 1: Observing and Interviewing
This past weekend I went to the mall to buy some supplies. I thought to myself why not finish my design assignment in the meantime? The first person I was able to interview was a 50 year old accountant. He was sitting on one of the chairs outside. He was really nice so I was able to get comfortable really quickly.
He told me that the only time he didn't have his phone readily available was while he was driving. He said he wished he was able to use his phone while commuting but he didn't want to look away from the road. He was constantly emphasizing that he felt it would be illegal to use his phone while driving. I don't know if that's completely true (I know it is for calling and probably texting).
The things he usually does/accesses on his phone is browse the web, make calls, and do general work things. I brought up the idea of a shopping application and he was open to the idea. He said he usually keeps his phone in his pocket. One specific instance he described was once again about commuting. He wanted to take a call but he couldn't because he was driving.
This is when I brought up the smart watch. His eyes seemed to open at that. He said he still wasn't sure if he would feel comfortable (again because of legality) but he was certainly open to the idea. He pointed out that it would certainly be easier to use a watch to take calls and read messages with his hands on the wheel.
Just out of curiosity, I asked him if he was considering getting a smart watch in the future. He answered by saying that it was a possibility but he didn't know if he would purchase a watch solely for this functionality alone. I thanked him for his time and went on to look for my next interviewee.
The next person who agreed to an interview was a cosmetics retailer. I met her while she was taking a break. She didn't want to disclose her age. She doesn't really use her phone for anything except calling and texting but she did have some insights for my questions. When I asked her when she didn't have her phone readily available, she answered really similarly to the last interviewee in that she felt like she always has her phone present in her purse.
I brought up the commuting thing from the last interviewee and she immediately agreed that it would be great to be able to easily to take calls and messages while driving. Later, she told me it would also be great to read messages and take calls while working in a way that doesn't disturb customers.
At this point, I brought up the smart watch and she told me that it would be an interesting solution. She imagined this by mimicking the action my placing her wrist in front of her mouth. I discussed some things related to how a consumer can use an application to improve their experience and she said maybe something that would tell shoppers information about the store or maybe something like a price checker but she wasn't at all sure about the logistics.
I learned a lot from these experiences. First, I got some insight from people I normally do not talk to very much. Additionally, I learned that many people want to be able to use their phone while they are driving. This could just be a coincidence but I think there is a pattern to be seen there.
Just as a side note I thought it was interesting that in both of these interviews, both of them knew about smart watches, but the first thing that they referenced was the iWatch which really isn't a thing yet. Just goes to show how engrained in society Apple products have become...
Part 2: Prototype and Brainstorm
1. Weather - app that reports the weather conditions. Ideally should use large text and a very simple interface.
2. Voice based web browser - basically a web browser that is navigated using the user's voice. This is an innovation to get around the small screen of the watch and also allows hands-free use.
3. Calendar/scheduler - allows the user to view the date and time and also allows the user to schedule tasks and appointments.
4. Traffic notifier - tells the user which roads/areas are congested and should be avoided.
5. Satellite radio - useful if normal radio isn't enough or if there is something only available through satellite.
6. Car information tracker (speed,battery,fuel etc.) - useful if for some reason the display on the vehicle itself isn't working or if the user prefers the information on a smart watch interface.
7. Vehicle controller (turn on AC, lock doors etc.) - ideally it should be activated by voice. This should make using a new vehicle simpler as you don't need to learn what each button does.
8. Stocks - basic stock trading app. It should ideally be more one way, as in it just report stocks as opposed to allowing the user to actually trade stocks. I think the latter is more suitable for a smart phone or a large device.
9. Alarm/reminder - useful for a watch interface as reminders are usually very simple and the user doesn't have to pull out his/her phone to look at the message.
10. Map/gps - could be very useful since the user doesn't have to turn his head (for a built-in gps) and only needs to look at his wrist. It should only display basic things like the road, what direction to move, etc. Prompts should be given using voice.
11. Music - basically a music playing application that uses the music library from the paired phone. Pretty basic but ultimately necessary.
12. Dash cam - ideally would work with the driver's hands on the wheels. It would basically capture what the driver sees on the road and upload it on the smart phone.
13. Emergency notifier - should be very useful since most people in emergencies will be disabled and won't be able to pull out their phone to dial 911. Ideally the watch should automatically do this when it senses something wrong (like the user's heartbeat).
14. Shopping app - inspired by the interviews I had with my two interviewees. Ideally, retailers would allow shoppers to purchase items using this application. It would essentially work as a replacement for the current shopping system with cashiers and allow for more self-service.
15. Taxes/accounting - not quite sure how this would work, but one of my interviewee was an accountant and this was one of the things he wished he could do when he didn't have his phone immediately available.
16. Voice activated Calculator - should work like a normal calculator except the calculations are activated by voice. This is once again to get around the limitations of the small screen. It should be useful for people who want to make a quick calculation but don't want to pull out their phone.
Prototype
I decided to prototype the shopping application (14) since it seemed most appropriate considering the people I interviewed and also, in my opinion, the most interesting.
I decided to use a simple touch screen interface since I felt like people wouldn't really be comfortable talking to their wrist watch in a public place like a store. I thought about physical buttons but decided that wouldn't be very clear to a novice user. I made sure the screen buttons were as large as possible to avoid the "fat fingers" problem.
My prototype application consists of five main activities.
1. The main menu - consists of the four main buttons which access the four other activities. It is a very simple interface that can obviously be improved on
2. The shopping list - essentially what the name suggests. The user can add items or delete items at their leisure. The orange fill-in with the dollar sign was intended to signify that a certain item was checked out.
3. Scanning - this activity allows the user to check out items by scanning bar codes. Ideally the store would submit/post a downloadable for this functionality. It is also possible that the user can scan some sort of code upon entry. After scanning an item, a information screen comes up about the product. The user can than choose to purchase the item or go back to the main menu.
4. Checkout - This screen is designed so the user can confirm his/her purchases. The idea is that the user would post their credit card information through their phone upon downloading the application. When they checkout, the fee would be automatically applied to his/her account.
5. About store - this activity is designed to provide information about the store the user is shopping at. This would automatically be filled out upon entry to the store. The user I tested my prototype with suggested that this might be done using GPS (although I'm not sure about the logistics in a place like a shopping mall)
Insights/Feedback
I discussed my prototype with my neighbor who happens to be an avid shopper. Surprisingly, I was able to get a lot of good insight and feedback. It seems like my prototype was actually quite flawed and had a lot of room for improvement.
The first thing he brought up was that the LIST activity was not very clear. He was very confused at what the shopping list actually did. He thought that it was just something like a to-do list that you would check off as opposed to something that actually orders items. I thought this made sense and perhaps the user interface could have been better. Perhaps this could have been made clear instead of LIST I could have used ORDER or maybe ORDER LIST.
After explaining the intent of my shopping application, he told me that he was unsure if SCAN meant order or just price checking. He felt like if he was going to use this application he wouldn't feel comfortable scanning an item not knowing if he was actually purchasing it or not. I think this could be fixed by putting a disclaimer of some sort.
For the information screen about the product, he felt that ID seemed useless to an average consumer. I thought this was agreeable and I'm not sure anymore why I placed it there in the first place. Looking back, ID seems like a misnomer since I meant to be the bar code (but even this wasn't clear in the prototype). Regardless, he suggested that instead of an ID I should put something more useful to the consumer like a product name.
One of the things he asked was how does one put in their purchasing information. This was something that wasn't said anywhere on my prototype which I suppose is another flaw. The idea was that the user would do this on the paired phone but obviously it isn't very good design if I have to explain that to the user.
The last screen I received feedback on was the CHECKOUT activity. This was a lot clearer after I had already explained the LIST activity so I'm not sure how a novice user would react to it. Regardless, he thought that I should have added a function to allow a user to delete items from the list in case he/she changes his/her mind. Also, he thought it would be good to add a confirmation screen to make sure no mis-clicks happen.
When I asked about suggestions to improve the application, he listed some things that I thought were really interesting. One of these was maybe providing a functionality to scan coupon codes. This was something I had not thought about at all. After some thought, he also suggested something to help with using the pharmacy but he wasn't clear about the details. He also told me that the ABOUT STORE activity seemed kind of useless. He thought the screen space could be replaced with something better (perhaps the coupon thing).
I thought all of these ideas were great and looking back I don't really know why I made the design decisions I made on my prototype. It is really humbling in a way and I think I've learned a lot these past few days. I guess that's pretty much the purpose of doing this exercise!
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