Watches In the Wild

Part 1

Interview

My first interviewee is a early-20s waiter at a Chinese restaurant. He recalled that he was not able to access his phone when the lunch or dinner peak comes. He has to keep his phone inside his pocket, but he thinks he is fine with doing things later with his phone. After I introduced him with the concept of smart watch, he found some functionality that might suit his interests. “I take bus to work, and I need to check the schedule. It is troublesome for me to pick up phone and ask Google again and again when will the next bus arrives... If I could just stand at the bus stop and the smart watch then shows me the remaining time for the next bus, that would be great.” It seems that some people does not need to or can postpone to use their phone when their hands are tight, and somehow prefer not to use their cell phone when they have access to it, just because some functionality is too trouble to use.

My second interviewee is a late-30s engineering professor at a prestige public university. He cares about this health and would go jogging when he finds time. After thinking for few seconds, he recalled his experience while jogging. “I listen to podcast while I am jogging... I have my phone on my arm but it is irritating to switch to another program. I need to stop running and battle with it...” He agrees that with the smart watch and a few set of gesture commands, his jogging experience would be more pleasant. Another functionality he values is to check emails and text messages. He told me that being a professor, he has to attend several boring meeting once in a while. While he was sitting there doing nothing, he really want to have a chance to check his email, but it is usually rude to take out your phone in such situation. He also pointed out that the small screen of the smart watch may not be suitable for checking emails, but checking text messages seems fine. The small screen is still a limitation for some desired functionality.

My third interviewee is a young banker teller working on Shuttack street, I cannot tell her age due to the heavy make-ups and I did not have the gut to ask. She remembers that she has trouble finding her cell phone sometimes and wondering if the smart watch could track the phone down. She also describes her shopping with her besties and complained about the hardship to pick her phone out from her handbag while holding various shopping bags. “It would be awesome if I can pick the phone call or simply checking who is calling using the watch!” She also prefers to mute the phone by a gesture command. Another thing she points about is the looking of the watch. She claims that if the watch is not beautifully designed, she is not going to buy it. This interview suggests that we shall also focus on the appearance of the watch.

Part 2

Brainstorm

1.Use GPS location to identify if you are at a bus stop, and pop up necessary bus info.

2.Use an add-on screen to show text message or email to compensate the small screen.

3.Hand/arm gestures to switch podcast.

4.Navigation using just arrow signs.

5.Tracking the location of the cell phone.

6.A pedometer with encouraging words or just vibrates when reaching certain number of steps.

7.Apps for making payments with smart watch.

8.Voice controlled app making parking reservation in San Francisco.

9.Small telescope including taking photos then send to the cellphone

10.Examine pulse to identify the user’s health condition

11.Quick note taking or drawing taking.

12.Find another smart devices by tapping smart watch on it.

Choose option 2. A larger screen will enable many other functionality.

The design is inspired by NDS/3DS. With two or more screen, people can perform more task on it.

The Screen orientation when taking pictures is not correct.

Receiving email. User can tap to read, or...

Push the screen up. There is also input screen under the original screen (Keyboard, or write board).

Expand the screen to read emails easier.

Since I can no longer find the professor in the interview, I test it on a student. He is also concerned with the screen size. After I explained what he could do to expand the screen, he told me what he think about the prototype.

1.The pushing the screen up and manually expanding the other screens should be made into an automated process.

2.Even if I have a larger display screen, the input screen would still be small to write. If the whole design is only aiming at a larger screen, why not combine the input and display on to one screen.

3.The expanded screens are easy to break, might just enlarge the original one.

The tester does not like the expanded screen since it is fragile. A future design can focus on making a more stable structure of the screen. I also learned from the test that:

1.Presenting long text on smart watch is still difficult, only expanding the screen may not be the best solution.

2.A structurally sound design works better than a fancy design.

3.Do not just think of helping in the situation of user cannot reach cellphone, but an alternative way to save users from trouble.