DESIGN 01: Watches in the Wild

Introduction

Personal finance, while an important lifelong skill, is critically important for fresh young adults out of college to master. Casual spending poses a significant risk to one's earnings, yet is fairly hard to keep track and keep organized.

This smartwatch application, codenamed "Smart Watch Accounting Gadget" or $WAG for short, seeks to eliminate the need for keeping receipts and a mental track of one's daily purchases, while reminding users of their daily/weekly/monthly spending limits.

Ultimately, we hope less adults will have to resort to crashing info sessions for the free food as a result.

Interviews

While I feel slightly guilty for not interviewing anyone above age 30, this project recognizes that smart watches will most likely be pioneered by newcomers to the workforce. With smartwatch technology being expensive enough to prohibit the younger crowd and being novel enough to alienate older generations, the primary market lies within the young adult market, who we predict will have both the right amount of disposable income and willingness to use said income on smart watches.

To this end, I interviewed three young adults within Berkeley. Case #1 and #2 are graduates of UC Berkeley, while Case #3 is a graduate student, added for extra input. Courtesy was offered to pixelate faces and the courtesy was accepted by all three.

Case #1: Female. 24 Years Old. Seeking Employment. 

Location: Social Party

• Stated that when alone, wanted to have an easier time setting up phone to take a picture from far away. Though said half-jokingly, important insight.

• Gestured to hypothetical device mainly through voice commands.

• Casually mentioned wanting to keep track of what money she owed to different people at party.

• Sometimes wished to look up emails, but if phone was not in room, occasionally too lazy to check.

• Stated a good use for smart watches could be for "monitoring conversations."

• Uses several social media and blogging platforms as a creator rather than consumer (though partakes in both).

Case #2: Male. 23 Years Old. Software Engineer.

Location: Social Party

• Wished he could have easier access to internet during flights. Although a phone would achieve the same task he stated, having the convenience of a smaller device would work in smaller, cramped spaces.

• Also stated that smart watches would be useful to check emails, text, and map directions.

• Casually mentioned a friend's use of a personal monthly finance system to keep his buying habits online in check.

• Had concerns about screen size and whether they'd be able to fit enough information.

• Stated that people won't wear smart watches to bed, much like eyeglasses.

• Had discussions about Internet Relay Chat and the inefficiencies of certain other messaging systems, such as Facebook Messenger for larger chats.

• Recently used the Venmo smartphone application to pay me back--stated that it made splitting costs for food items a whole lot easier than in the past.

Case #3: Male. 27 Years Old. UC Berkeley Graduate Student / Lecturer

Location: Tolman Office

• Immediately brought up how lack of internet severely limited his ability to use mobile technology. A thorough and well-justified rant against Comcast and AT&T followed.

• Also voiced concerns about phones being in separate rooms and using willpower to get up and check notifications.

• Wished to be able to get up in the morning easier. Often has to press snooze button several times, but sometimes wished that snooze button was in easier reach than on smartphone.

• Stated that applications in email, maps, and looking up information would be great for smartwatch technology.

• Hoped for an application that could quickly call up information to resolve 'dumb arguments and facts', like, "Your blood is blue on the inside!"

• Casually mentioned that last month was a bit of a financial tumble--reported needing to manage stipend and food costs better.

Shared Common Cases

• All three saw the smartwatch as an extension for checking text items, such as email or texts.
  
• Important emphasis was on financial management, which in the past had been a struggle. From splitting the check properly to refraining from looking for free food, finance and financial stability was on everyone's mind.
• Social media was a topic that each case was familiar about. Although not directly brought up in conversation, casual mentions of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram was a reminder of the pervasive nature of online socializing.
• When asked about smartwatch gestures, the two most common suggestions were voice control and swipe controls.

Brainstorming (with friends!)

After a night of amazingly bad cooking, I invited my housemates to a brainstorming session on smartwatch ideas. Here are our results, both good and hilariously bad. Thanks to Casey Getz, Chun Park, and Kiril Pirozhenko for assistance.

1. A smart unlocker, able to unlock electronic locks, one's phone, and your encrypted hard drive of 'special' stuff.
   
2. With multiple smartwatches, a kitchen synchronizer app, able to expedite meals made by multiple people by organizing them into tasks needed to be done.
   
3. An application to prevent someone from falling asleep by emitting a large beep or a shock when heart rate gets too low.
   
4. A "Siri-like" application that either says, "they're right you know" or "get your facts straight!" when it hears a commonly contested factoid. Bonus points if it listens in passively.
   
5. Utilizing a heating element technology to remotely heat up popcorn. Inspired by this hoax.
   
6. An application that detects the nearest event that's offering free food, whether municipal, academic, or business affair. Would check during normal meal times on various mailing lists.
   
7. An application that reminds you to drink enough water each day. Inspired by this app.
   
8. An opt-in system that combines the best of Street Pass from the Nintendo 3DS and OkCupid--alerts you when people with high match percentages on dating websites are closeby. Literally, "singles in your area!"
   
9. A dual application when making phone calls--would display person being talked to, minutes discussed, as well as total charge thus far. Useful for limited minute plans and international calls.
   
10. A constantly nagging calendar that reminds you to work on projects continuously, and berates you if you wait until the night before to finish it.
    
11. A companion face on the watch to cheer you on while being productive, such as working out or studying. Cheers you up when you don't succeed at midterms. Acts as the antidote to the previous item. Most likely would utilize Live2D technology.
    
12. An application that remotely opens your smartphone's camera and controls it.
    
13. A simple maps application that only displays an arrow and remaining distance.
    
14. A pun/pickup line/random factoid/smartwatch idea generator to seem witty at parties.
    
15. An application to keep track of one's finances by keeping track of one's purchases throughout the day, thus preventing some people from buying 5 cans of Biscoff ® European Cookie Spread at once.

Ultimately, I chose #15 to develop because financial concerns seem to be a unifying concern for potential purchasers of smartwatches, as indicated by the interviewees above. Also because I could make a cool acronym out of it.

Developing $WAG

In developing the application, these goals were kept in in mind:

1. Remind the user of their financial limits from a daily, weekly, and monthly perspective.
   
2. Use swipe gestures as much as possible.
3. Have creative visualizations that give a quick heuristic of funds left.
4. Easily manage day-to-day impromptu costs without much hassle.
5. Don't embarrass oneself too much in the testing process.

To this end, these implementations were presented:

1. Quickly access daily, weekly, and monthly limits which dynamically change after purchases.
   
2. Swiping is used to traverse the app. Up-down swipes go through in-category screens, while left-right swipes switch between modes.
3. A background visualization of water 'filling' up the watch indicated approximately what percentage of funds were left for that time period. Numeric values also switch from monetary to percentage amounts cyclically to convey two perspectives.
4. State-of-the-art scanning technology can recognize any object, receipt, or IOU and its price just by being near it. Secret government technology may or may not have been stolen and implemented to meet these ends.
5. Delete all video evidence of application after notes were taken. Learning is good, but embarrassment is optional.

Application Overview (Through Pictures!)

Not much to say here when the pictures and captions can say more. If a picture is worth a thousand words, have fun reading 1300+ equivalent words.

Testing and Conclusions

Without being too verbose, here is a roundup of the testing phase (major improvements bolded):

• The instructions on how to navigate were vague. I attempted to refrain from giving pointers as best I could, but controls for swiping are hard to visualize without animations. Perhaps voice guided tours would be good for first-timers.
• The background fraction visualization was completely ignored. Perhaps in higher fidelity prototypes, the effect would be more pronounced, but perhaps contrasting colors would be better than water simulations.
• Users generally understood that categories were usually grouped by columns and distinguished by rows, instead of the other way around. Even if they were initially confused, the organizational cues were usually enough.
• Need to reduce lag time between screens, that's for sure.
• Convenience in being able to scan anything easily was a plus.
• One user voiced concern that a weekly and monthly budget would not be used much in daily interactions.
• Both users asked how quotas would be entered--responded by saying that interface would be on the smartphone.
• It was unclear for both testers what some of the numbers meant. This requires labeling in order to avoid ambiguity on whether the numbers mean "what's left" vs. "what's spent." More distinct percentage sign highlighting and usage of a dollar sign perhaps.
• Users asked if there was bank integration. Will implement in future prototypes.
• When scanning the item, one user was unaware whether he had already made the purchase or not. Need to clarify that confirmation is needed before purchase is registered.
• Also concerning purchases, users were confused as to what gesture would "confirm" the purchase. Need to also clarify this with a visualization, most likely a "swipe left/swipe right" binary choice.
• Users enjoyed how the watch automates much of the input and calculation. "No pushing buttons," as quoted from one user.
• Font thickness needs to be increased--both subjects had to squint at the screen to see what was being spelled. However, screen size is a limiting factor without the text overwhelming the canvas.

Two jars of Biscoff Cookie Spread were harmed/used in the production of this project. It's seriously the best stuff since sliced bread.