DESIGN 01: Watches in the Wild

Part 1: Interviewing and Observing

Interviewee 1: Chef at fraternities

The first person I interviewed is the chef at my fraternity. He said that he uses his phone mostly for text messaging and email, occasionally using it for other miscellaneous things like sports updates or games. I asked him where he kept his phone normally, and he quickly responded by pulling it out of the right side pocket of his pants. 

I asked him if he could recall a time when wanted to use his phone or access some information on it when it wasn't available. He was having a hard time thinking of an example, so I asked him if he ever uses recipes on his phone. He said that he has used his phone for a recipe a handful of times but that he usually uses printed instructions or just works from memory. He did, however, mention that it was inconvenient using his phone for a recipe and that was the reason he rarely uses it. 

So I asked him to explain those difficulties, and to walk through what might happen when trying to use a recipe on his phone. The first thing he mentioned was the difficulty a phone poses because the screen goes to sleep. He needs to continually check the recipe, and sometimes not for minutes at a time. To do so on his phone, he has to unlock the phone every time. I pointed out to him that he could actually keep his phone from locking, but also pointed out that this would be pretty expensive in terms of power. 

Another problem he noted, which had to do with recipes but also just using his phone in general, was that his hands are often covered in some kind of food or sauce or maybe just water. All those keep him from touching his phone when he gets a text message, email, etc. 

When I asked him how a smart watch may be helpful, he quickly applied it to his two difficulties. He expressed how much easier it could be to check a recipe if all he had to do was look at his wrist. Obviously, a smart watch solution for this subject would have to have good battery life and not go to sleep. He also mentioned how a smart watch could prevent him from having to touch a phone when cooking if he got notifications through the watch. In this case, the watch would have to be water proof and capable of being covered in food and cleaned.

Interviewee 2: Ex-Rugby Player and Recent Cal Grad

The second person I interviewed is an recent grad and ex-rugby player. I chose him because he is an athlete and likely has a lot of potential hands-free use cases. He said he uses his phone for all kinds of activities from texting to Facebook to Snapchat to news. 

I asked him first to try to remember a time when he couldn't access his phone but wanted to. After thinking for a minute, he described a time recently when he was driving but couldn't use his phone to communicate. When he has extra time, he drives trucks that deliver kegs for his brother's brewery, and he explained to me that at times it was frustrating to drive around for a few hours never able to access his phone. 

When I asked him to explain a little more, he said that sometimes the texts or messages were important (for example, maybe his brother needed him back at the brewery for something) but that he was unable to look at his phone to check. This also prompted him to point out, however, that he wouldn't want all kinds of notifications on his smart watch. He seemed to like the idea of a kind of emergency notification that would alert him only if it was completely necessary, that way he wouldn't have to worry to check his phone for important information when driving or something. 

I then asked him about using a smart watch during athletics or training. He didn't seem to like the idea at all, noting that there are very few times he ever wanted to use his phone while working out or competing. In fact, when I asked him to think of any time that this happened, he couldn't provide an answer. He then further stressed that he wouldn't want the watch to be constantly updating him and didn't want a further distraction in his life. Rather, for this subject the smart watch should offer some novel way to deliver messages and notifications that makes the process easier or more seamless.

Key Takeaways:

The main lesson I learned from these interviews is that the key to a smart watch application is that it is hands free, so I think that any application on a smart watch should try to limit hand usage as much as possible. Another key feature I identified is that the watch must be durable. The first subject wanted it to be durable enough for water and all kinds of food. That got me thinking about all the different things people might put a watch through, and I believe that durability is also key to a good smart watch. Lastly, it seems like people are fed up with the constant notification invasion into their lives. I think that a smart watch application needs to be cleverly designed to make the user feel like they are getting less notifications, even if they are in fact getting more. To put it simply, the watch needs to make the notification process simple, informative and non-intrusive. 

Part 2: Brainstorming and Prototyping

Brainstorming:

1) Hands Free GPS - gives you directions while walking, driving, biking, etc

2) Compass/coordinates app - operates as a compass, provides longitude/latitude, elevation, etc for outdoorsy types

3) Time app - people use their phone and wrist watches all time, so this is clearly a necessity

4) Barcode Scanner - face the screen to the bar code, then it gives you a price and you buy or don't

5) Tickets on sale - push notification when tickets for a certain artist or concert come out and you can buy with the push of a button

6) Important Notifications - a way to prioritize your notifications by person or type that filters out important/urgent from non-urgent ones

7) Surfing App - surfers can take this out into the ocean and be notified if the swells are dying or there has been a shark siting or something like that

8) Locator for friends - you'd tell the watch "find X" and then the watch points you in the direction of that person (especially helpful at concerts and large public events)

9) Safety alerts - rather than a text, you get the message on your on watch; you could sign up for certain alert areas (I would sign up for Berkeley and UC Berkeley or something and you get important campus or neighborhood safety info for those circles)

10) Flashlight - push a button and flashlight comes on (needs to be faster than pulling out your phone and using its flashlight)

11) Friend Notifier - say you want to find your friend Jack, but you don't know where he is. You tell this app you want to find Jack and the next time you're within 100 yards or something it notifies you and tells you where he is

12) Basketball shot counter - I sometimes want to go to the gym and set a benchmark or shots I want to take, so this would count those shots rather than you doing it yourself. Watch must be lightweight and not be intrusive.

13) Golf Swing rater - similar to above, except for golf. It rates your swing consistency based on past swings, swing speed, etc. Again, must not be intrusive. 

14) Jot that - constantly recording audio and saves the only previous 10 sec or 20 sec or whatever is the best option. Then on the push of a button, you save that audio for good.

15) Notes/Reminder App - I hate having to pull out my phone and open it and open the notes app just to check a couple notes I wrote for the day. A smart watch app could do this much more seamlessly. 

16) Distance travelled/time - biking, running, driving, etc; gives you total distance and beeline distance

My Choice:

I decided to go with Jot That for my application. It wasn't something that I thought of immediately after interviewing my subjects, but the more I thought about the ideas I came up with I became convinced this is the one that I would use the most. The way it works is fairly simple. Say you have a lecture or a meeting. At the beginning of that meeting you open the app and tell it to start recording. Then, at any point in the meeting if you didn't hear something or you zone out for a second or you get distracted then you can just tap a button on your watch and it will save the last 10, 20, or 30 sec of audio, depending on what the user thinks is the optimal amount.  

I can also imagine another use case for this watch. I, like many other people, often forget someone's name within 10 sec of meeting them. If you realize this is about to happen, or you just know you're bad with names, you store the audio clip after being introduced. I think there are other use cases that I'm not imaginative enough for right now, and that is why I chose this application.

Prototype:

Below is the first screen the user would see using my app. The interface is meant to be as simple and small as possible to fit the watch screen size and simplify the experience for the user. This first page only has one button, which allows the user to start recording. 

The next image is the second screen the user would see. There are only two pages: one to start recording and one that allows you to have the current clip or stop recording. The latter page is seen below. It has one button to save the current clip, which would send it to your computer/phone to be saved or maybe a remote server. And a second button to stop recording. The user would push this button at the end of a meeting, lecture, etc. 

Feedback:

I gave my watch prototype to a friend of mine to fiddle around with. I explained to him the basic idea of how the app is supposed to work without instructing him on the specifics of how to use it. 

First, I asked him to sit and imagine watching lecture and taking notes and then realizing that he just zoned out for a minute.

He was quickly able to figure out which buttons needed to be pressed to save the clip, and he noted that he like how it was only one press of a button and that no continual interaction was necessary to save a clip. 

He also noted, however, that he doesn't like the idea of a screen on his wrist. He was put off by the fact that people would be able to see this screen when he raises his hand. Additionally, he was worried that the watch may just turn into another object to distract him, rather than increase his productivity. 

Next we simply had a conversation and I asked him to imagine what ways he might be use the app in our conversation. Similarly, I ran through a mock introduction with him where I asked him to use the watch to record a clip so he could later remember my name. 

He immediately pointed out a couple problems. For one, he pointed out that the app has to already be recording before the conversation starts, which requires the user to start recording. This is a pretty inorganic way to socialize. The user didn't like the idea of starting it before a new conversation at all. 

He also didn't like that you had to interact with the watch at all when you are in mid conversation. Stopping to push "Save Clip" in the middle of a conversation is, again, an unnatural way to converse. 

Takeaways From Feedback:

I think there are a couple very valuable lessons to learn from the feedback I got. First, I'll address the situation where the user is in a class or meeting. My subject didn't like the idea of an extra distraction and the fact that another person can see the screen when the user raises their hand or something. To solve this, I think the best solution is to dim the screen once recording starts. That way the user can save a clip by pushing a button on the side and tapping the screen illuminates it, giving you the option to save a clip or stop recording. I think this would go a long way in solving the distraction problem in particular. 

Next, there were a couple issues with using the app in casual conversation. The common theme in those problems was that the user had to interrupt the normal flow of conversation in order to use the app's features. This is a problem that smart watches are intended to solve, so it is a big problem. Fortunately, I think this issue could be solved in a couple ways. First, there could be voice activation. This way you'd have a preset list of phases or words that trigger the app to record and save a clip. An example of such a phrase could be "Hi, what's your name?" or "Nice to meet you." Once the app detects that phrase, it records and saves a clip of X seconds.

Another option is to trigger a recording when the user shakes someone's hand. Then that recording is automatically saved. The problem with this is that it requires the user to wear the watch on their right hand, but it may also be the more foolproof method for detecting when the user would want to have a clip saved. I think both of these solutions address the problem of interrupting normal conversation well enough to make the app a feasible and seamless experience that the use will appreciate.