I interviewed two people separately at various locations, identified common problems, and then worked those into a smartwatch app.
Person 1: Mom, 40, Case Manager at a commercial firm. Met at Sacks Coffee House.
As a mother of an 8-year-old kid, she often takes her kid out to the theater to catch the latest upcoming movie. One of her biggest pet peeves is not having the ability to be notified about work and family in certain situations. For example, in the theater, if she takes out her phone from her purse where she usually stores it, the large and overwhelmingly bright screen will annoy her fellow movie-goers. As such, she wishes that she could own a smart watch which would allow her to receive only important notifications whilst in similar dark-room environments. Similarly, at work, she often feels vibrations in her purse which she sometimes is afraid that it might be from her child’s school, but she does not dare to take out her phone in front of her bosses.
Furthermore, she imposed several restrictions. The smart watch had to be not of a LED-screen technology, but rather an e-ink one like the Pebble and Kindle. Furthermore, it also had to be cheap, flat / thin and lightweight, if it were to cater to ladies as well.
Person 2: Husband, 31, Cashier at a grocery store. Met at a grocery store named Derby Food Center.
This man loves soccer. At the recent Real Madrid vs Inter Milan game in Berkeley, he wished he was able to post several snippets of the match to Facebook without having to take out his phone each time. He also wanted to be able to receive notifications easily at the match – such as calls, Facebook updates and music. He remarked that it was a fine art of conserving battery and receiving timely updates on his phone.
When prompted about a potential future device that would fit on his wrist, his eyes brightened. He hopes for a light and smart device that would not only fulfill the above purposes, but also be able to aid him at his work, such as notifying him gently while he is serving his customers. Sometimes though, he wishes that smart watches can scan items, so that he would not have to individually scan each item. When asked on what thoughts he had on a smartwatch, he hopes that the smartwatch will be priced affordably for the general audience.
Overall Thoughts
I felt that both users felt more perturbed by the phone’s hardware rather than software limitations. Although they were interviewed at different locations and held different jobs, both interviewees brought up similar points. First, they wanted it to be unintrusive – they didn’t want to disturb their fellow moviegoers or customers they were serving. Second, they wished for it to be light and handy. They wanted this magical device to fade into the background, such that they themselves would forget about it and only be reminded when needed. Lastly, they wanted it to be at a price which they could justify making up for the deficiencies that their smartphone had.
Brainstorming
Here are several ideas that I came up with from both interviewees:
1) Shows important notifications from only her close friends and family, and a one tap to reply canned messages (e.g. I’ll call you back later)
2) Automatically turn watch to “do not disturb” mode when it sees that there is a movie or a meeting on the calendar
3) Have a list of movies sorted by genre, so she can easily pick which one to see with her kid
4) Show the user’s calendar for the rest of the day, and inform him/her how far the driving distance between meeting venues are
5) Location-based smart reminders for important events and times, e.g. “Leave current place in 20 minutes to pick son up on time”
6) Share current location with a simple voice command using the smartwatch’s
7) Show the scoreboard for soccer teams that I’m following
8) A main notification center for favorite apps, ranking them from most to least important
9) Recommend music playlists based on different times of the day
10) Check prices of grocery items and check out from your smart watch using an onboard camera to scan the barcode
11) Be able to video call others while automatically muting the microphone with a simple tap
12) Make calls with a simple voice command that integrates with third-party phone apps – "Call my wife on Skype"
My favorite idea of them all would be the Grocery Shopping one. Today, the methods we use to check out at supermarkets and grocery stores are extremely outdated, and being able to use your smartwatch to check prices and checkout would be much more convenient than lining up.
Creating the Prototype
I decided to go with WatchSnap for the name, because you could easily "Snap" items using the camera on board, and it was all from the convenience of your watch.
The prototype was made from recycled cardboard and paper. Screens were first drawn out in a storyboard, and effort was made to test colors and fonts. Finally, I decided to go with a three-color prototype to make things simple. The colors used were blue for main text, black for header text and red only for a negative feedback.
The reduced number of available gestures was taken into account. Most interactions require a swipe, and only two require taps to see the item in detail. A tutorial was also added to teach the user how to scan items.
Going from the top, the user can swipe left to scan items, or swipe right to access his shopping list. If he swipes left, he should align the barcode with the provided box. The box changes color if it does not recognize the barcode, or shows a checkmark if the item was scanned correctly. The user then needs to tap to confirm the amount, and he can swipe to modify the quantity, and then he swipes down to place it in his shopping list.
Once he is ready for checkout, he can see a quick summary of his total, and then using his preloaded credit card (assuming we connect this to Google Wallet, Venmo, Paypal or Amazon Payments), he can simply swipe right to finish his order. An email summarizing his purchases is automatically sent to his account.
User Feedback
Tested this out with Koji, a CS sophomore. When he saw the prototype, he thought of it as innovative, but we soon ran into some issues. We brainstormed for awhile and came up with solutions to tackle these problems.
1) On the launch screen, he was confused as to how to use the app. Solution: Include a tutorial by placing an (i) information button at the top right of the home screen. Teach the user how to navigate the app, and what controls are available to him.
2) He felt that the header for each screen was taking up too much space. Solution: With the tutorial, the user will know what screen really is, and eventually figure it out to be like a Snapchat where the screens are actually distinct modes.
3) Instead of a rectangle to scan items, he preferred square brackets for scanning. Solution: Implement square brackets like [ ] to help the user to scan. Also provide necessary directions in cases where the user is unable to scan (e.g. Zoom out by moving your hand further away.)
4) When incrementing the quantity of an item, we ran into some problems. What units should we increment or decrement by? Solution: For pounds, we thought of quarter pounds. For others, we would detect the speed of the swipe (like how an action sheet works in iOS) to ensure that user would be able to get to his preferred amount easily.
5) If scanning fails, there should be an alternative. Solution: Implement a call for help button that pings other store staff the user’s location.
6) Because this app involves money, the total amount of all items in the shopping cart so far should be at the bottom of all screens. Solution: Add a total amount to the bottom of all screens.
7) In the shopping list page, there should be a checkout button as well, as swiping to the right to navigate to the checkout page wasn’t clear enough. Solution: Add a button to the total, so user can checkout
8) While entering the detailed description of an item, there should be a way to edit or remove the quantity. Solution: Add an edit button and a remove button for the user to adjust quantities.
9) Adding payment methods would be a pain on a smart watch. Solution: Change credit cards by swiping the upper half of the screen, and also inform the user to edit payment methods on his phone if necessary.
10) Sometimes, the user will want to receive an email of their receipt. Solution: Change the share icon to an email button
Overall, this was a fascinating project to work on. Using the model of user feedback and constant iteration certainly helped me better rethink on my design. I would love to push this idea one stage farther towards implementation.
Comments