Interviews
English Major at a Medium Company
He said that he almost always has his phone on his body at all times. However, his job requires to have a lot of interaction with people, as well as give many presentation, so most of the time he prefers not to pull out and use his phone in front of people.
He said his desire use for a device on his wrist would be to just aid him in his daily work life, networking with people, and giving presentation. One idea he came up with was to address an issue where he would very often talk too much and dominate a conversation. So an interesting app idea he had was a conversation timer that would subtly notify you by gently vibrating after a certain duration has passed. So the idea would be similar to a clock in speed chess. The user would be able to open the app, and subtly just tap the screen whenever you alternate speaking; when it is on your turn to speak, there a timer and counts down.
Among other things, he also asked for presentation tools, such as being able to change slides using his wrist device, or an app that will help him keep pace during his presentation.
Software Engineer at Large Company
He said that often time, he would leave his phone on his desk and typically doesn't always have his phone on him. Throughout the day, he may be at his desk, but he also may be roaming around the company, sitting at different workspace, lounges, or interacting with other people, and would forgot his phone on his desk.
He is a very forgetful person and often misplace small things, such as his phone, wallet, keys, etc. So he was very interested in a device that would be attached to his wrist at all times. He said his greatest use/task he would have for it, would be various productivity tools. Especially a Todo list that he would always have access to. For him, it would be nice if it can be synced with a cloud account to sync his todo lists, but the wrist device itself should also be able to be used as a stand alone without the necessity of having input from other devices. As such, he should be able to input new task by writing on the screen of his wrist device. He can swipe through all his task, and click and check if it off when he is done.
Similar to my first interview, I brought up the idea of apps that would aid him in his work life, and he describe times when he is really into his work, and he forget to get up and be active, as well as, just mindlessly eating a lot of snacks. So have a tracker of when to take a break, or a snack tracker to signify when you consumed too many bags of Hot Cheetos.
Brainstorms
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Customizable Todo List - To be able to add tasks by writing on the wrist display, check off tasks, sync to a cloud account, Delete tasks, etc
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Conversation Timer - Mechanics similar to a speed chess clock, alternating back and forward; after a given duration, the device will subtly notify the user that they have been talking for a long period of time
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Coworker Locator (Nerf Gun War Radar) - Using bluetooth or Wifi, being able to find the location of a given coworker in the building; doubles as a radar, during downtime nerf gun wars
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Meeting Pinger - Notify people of a meeting or request them to come to a room
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Lunch Group Generator - Random match group of peoples and a gives them a random location in the area to go eat and get to know one another
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Buzzword Generator - Randomly generate sets of words that you can use in your next conversation
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Presentation Slides Controller - Control Keynote/Powerpoint slides using your wrist device by swiping the screen to go back and forth, or activate media elements
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Presentation Pacer - Gently vibrate you after preset increment of times (i.e. 5 mins) To tell you how much fast you are going
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Afterwork Activity Matcher - An activity poll that you can take everyday, that allow other coworker if you'll be interested in a game of basketball or soccer after work
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Random Exercise Generator - After sitting for long period of time at a desk, an app that will randomly generate a exercise for you to do the help you stay active
- Foosball/PingPong Challenger - Send challengers to other coworkers to come to the game room
- Name and Face Matcher - Have a database of name and face to help you remember people
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Last Time We Converse Tracker - Keeps tracker of when was the last time you spoke to someone and reminds you if it has been a while
- Snack Tracker - Quickly be able to track what snacks you grab, and notify you if you have eaten too many snacks!
Prototypes for RANDOM EXERCISE GENERATOR
This is a very interesting and funny app idea that fits the recent fitness trend which will encourage you to be a little bit more active throughout the day, when the app detects you have been still for a long time or your heart rate stays low for a long period of time.
Flow Chart
The basic flow of the app is that it typically running as a background process, but if you enter the app, the home screen will notify of your heart rate. You can go and swipe through 'Settings' and change the 'Intensity' of the exercises, what kind of 'Attire' you wear at work, and which 'Mode' you want the app to be on.
'Intensity' [Easy, Medium, Intense] - This is to determine the difficulty and quantity of the exercises
'Attire' [Active, Causal, Formal] - This limits what kind of exercise/range of motion you will have depending on what you are wearing
'Mode' [Routine, Heart Monitor] - This allows you to set whether you want a exercise every X mins or Y hours, or you can choose to have the app randomly prompt you based on your heart rate
Once you get an exercise, you can click 'Complete' and it will measure your increase heart rate. It if has increased sufficiently, then it is a 'Success!' othwise it is a 'Fail...' then you have the option to try again or dismiss the exercise.
Feedback
- The app is simplistic, but it lack any descriptions to tell you what everything means, so probably should add a 'Help' page or add descriptions to each of the options in the settings.
- Home Page is not very intuitive of what the app is about; it just look like a heart monitor.
- You can possibly gamify the app by adding a point system and allow different users to keep track of one another activity levels or even challenge one another
- Some of the layout is just unpleasing to the eye, especially the placement of some of the text on the screen
- Some of the settings should have more flexible increments or allow the user to input (i.e. after what period of time, do they want a notification)
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