Watches in the Wild

The life story of the development of a watch application from start to prototype

Interviewing People for Ideas

Subject 1: Bike mechanic who works at the Bike Station and biking enthusiast (30 year old)

Subject description and conversation summary:

Subject is a bike mechanic who works at the Bike Station, he himself is an avid biker who commutes to and from work on a bike and does a lot of recreational biking. Normally when he is hanging about on a casual day he keeps his phone in his pocket, however when he is working he moves around a lot and handles a lot of heavy tools so he keeps his phone next to the cash register. If he is biking he usually keeps his phone either in his pocket or in a pouch attached to his waist.

What I learned from this interview:

From my conversation with him I learned that he mainly uses his phone for looking up directions when he is going somewhere or biking to a new place. He does a lot of long distance biking, and in many places there is no service, no place to charge your phone, and it is really inconvenient for him to pull out his phone while biking so in many situations he chooses to phone-less as a result since having his phone doesn't help him. This leads me to consider the watch having an individual component where you can pull directions from your mobile device to your watch, and then just have the watch display traveling directions without a GPS. That way you still have step by step directions of where to go, but it eliminates the battery consuming GPS portion of the device, and instead just gives you a simple instruction device that tells you how to get somewhere. This also makes it simple if you do not have signal readily available and can access maps regardless of that and eliminates the need for him to pull out his phone. Another thing that the subject was interested in were features for bikers and maybe other long distance athletes like estimated time of arrival, speed, elevation, etc. The last thing I learned from this subject is that having a vibration or a reminder on a smart watch when you forget your phone or go too far from it is helpful in preventing forgetting your phone at work since this is something that the subject does multiple times and finds annoying.

Subject 2: AT&T Employee, and outdoor enthusiast (28 years old)

Subject description and conversation summary:

Subject is a AT&T team member who also likes to go outdoors and hike a lot. He usually keeps his phone in his pocket, and he likes to have his phone wherever he goes because it makes him feel connected with the world at large. He usually gets to work by public transit and he finds it annoying when he misses his bus or forgets his phone at home.

What I learned from this interview:

From talking to this subject, I learned that he is very interested in having a wearable that is able to send SOS signals. He talked about an incident where he fell badly and injured his limbs and had a difficult time pulling out his phone and getting help. This led me to thinking that implementing a SOS button on the watch can be a very good idea in some situations. He also mentioned a similar reminder system of notification for when he forgets his phone, which leads me to believe that when you are about to step outside of your phone's range, many people appreciate a friendly reminder from a wearable that they are about to be separated from the phone. Since the subject often commutes to work, he would like a better way to request services such a Uber or Lyft or even check the Bart schedule since he does not like taking his phone out in public for the fear of it getting stolen. I learned that having a public transit schedule readily available on demand is a feature that many commuters find useful. This subject also enjoys shopping, but finds it annoying to have to look up specials in the stores individually whenever he needs to buy something, so an application that displays all the specials in an area would be something that appeals to him. The subject also enjoys cooking, but he never knows what order to put in ingredients and usually has his hands too full and hates bringing the laptop or tablet into the kitchen for fear of damaging it. This led me to conclude that having step by step displays on the watch is convenient, and it works on the small screen since we are not displaying a wall of text.

Both of these users have expressed displeasure in forgetting their phones constantly, and both mentioned that it would be great if there was a way to remind them to pick up their phones when they forgot them somewhere. A way to fix this would be to implement a simple vibration that warns you when you're about to step out of your phone's range. Both users also expressed displeasure in checking things when your hands are full, which leads me to conclude that maybe for some things it is good in incorporate hand or wrist motion for those times when your hands are full or wet.

BRAINSTORM TIME

Smart watch Application Prototype Ideas: 

1. Map with GPS -> Shows step by step routing pulled from the phone

2. Send distress signals - life alert? ex if you fall in a ditch, break one of your arms, etc.

3. Pedometer/Heart rate monitor/Calorie tracker - Heart rate monitor can grab pulse from wrist? no need for weird around the chest strap

4. Call Lift/Uber. Helps when you need to request a ride to the airport and your hands are full of luggage

5. BART schedule puller/ CalTrain schedule puller - saves you from having to pull out your phone every three minutes to check when the BART is coming. Can have the time displayed directly on your watch conveniently.

6. Text message viewer/Answer calls via specific hand or wrist motion. Eliminates the need to pull out your phone or even use hands at all. Convenient for when your hands are wet or when you're driving.

7. Biking stats application - Shows a start and end time, elevation, average speed, how many stops taken, etc. Basic application for showing biking statistics.

8. Weather Viewer ( 24 hour ). Sends an extra vibration and plays a sound for snow or something so you know to bring that umbrella or those snow shoes. Helps you plan out what to wear for the day, determine if you need that jacket, etc.

9. Reminder if about to lose connection with i-phone - Helps you know if you've forgotten your phone somewhere and need to take it with you, or if you are about to approach a no signal area.

11. Store special deals display unit - When you walk into a store it shows all the specials in that store or in a set range (100meters, 200 meters, etc).

12. Yelp App - What food places are currently open in the area and how to get there. Scroll via drag up and browse through a list of place that will be open for the next 30 minutes nearby, and when you click on one it pops up a map on how to get there.

13. Lecture videocording/Voice snippet recording - Can record lectures, conversations during accidents or disputes to use in a legal setting with a device that is both relatively obscure and provocative.

14. Timer/Stopwatch for the cook/the runner. Notifies you when your chicken is done baking in the oven or when you've finished you run for the day (30 minutes of running goal ,etc).

Prototyping my application - EZRecipe! 

I chose to go with the recipe follower idea because it's something that a lot of different people can use, and it also tests out the idea of the following directions one screen at a time (which can later be applies to a GPS) that both of my subjects showed a liking to.

The screens of the application:

Prototype Description :

My prototype for my application is arranged on a set of 14 screens for this particular case. It starts off with a title screen which tells the user the name of the application. The next four screens after that tell the user how to navigate the watch both with hands and without hands, teaching the first time user how to use this watch. The following screen is supposed to have list of recipes that you can scroll through using voice of via the touch screen. Once you select the recipe, it takes you to to the first step. The step screens are organized so that the first screen for a step is the text version of what you should do, and the next screen for a step is a visualization of what you should do. Each step for this particular recipe has one text screen and one image screen for clarification. Upon finishing a recipe, the watch should return to the menu screen. Screens are navigated through via flipping in this prototype.

The watch itself is designed to be simplistic in design, featuring two buttons one on the right and one on the left for navigation. This combats the "fat finger" problem of having to tap on one side of the screen or another. There is also voice recognition that one can use for navigation implanted in this watch, as well as a touch screen for people who prefer to use that.

TESTING THE PROTOTYPE IN THE WILD

Upon testing my product with a few users, I have received some of the following feedback and insights:

a. One of the subjects found it awkward that one screen had text and the next screen had pictures. She suggested that the pictures were not necessary since the text was already very clear, or another suggestion she had is to put the pictures on the same screen. For the particular recipe I was working on, the instructions were pretty simple so pictures may have not been necessary, however I think for more complicated recipes having a visual guide would be more helpful. Maybe having a combination of both text and pictures on the screen and smaller steps would work well too, it is something worth thinking about for the next prototype.

b. Both users suggested that I be careful of screen orientation when putting text and pictures on the screen, and to be mindful of how to watch sits on the wrist. I definitely should have paid more attention to how the screen is oriented so that users are not bending their necks at awkward angles or have glare and other such issues impair their visibility of the watch. Maybe a E-ink interface or making sure that the text is at an angle perpendicular to the wrist joint will fix that issue.

c. One of the users suggested that having video visualization instead of pictures of each of the processes would be better for comprehension of the steps. I think that the user is right, having videos would help clarify each of the steps further, however I am afraid of videos taking up battery life. It may be a worthy trade off, especially for recipes that require specific cutting techniques that cannot be immediately represented in the pictures. I feel that these videos should go after the text and should be able to be skipped with the "next" or "previous" command if the user feels that they do not need the video clarification.

d. Some of the more surface level feedback that I received include more colors on the screen, highlight some keywords, especially the watch commands and important keywords like "hot" and "caution" for better clarity and visualization. I think that this is a good point, dangerous and important things should have more emphasis than regular text and can easily fix this by bolding words or italicizing them.

e. Overall the application was very easy to understand and navigate, especially with the instructions in the beginning. Users were able to follow the commands with very little misunderstanding