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A.I. based smartwatch that balances workdays of professionals
Briefing
Balance - an interactive smartwatch that provides the ability to be an intuitive assistant to the wearer without adding distraction.
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My Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer
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Team
Nirmalkumar Patel, Anna Skidmore, Ashley Nguyen
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Tools Timeline
Adobe XD, Figma 6 weeks
Create a new wearable to increase employee productivity through a healthy work-life balance and build a bridge between an employee’s work and personal life, acting as an assistant for the wearer.
This technology must have the ability to sync up to the employee’s business email and account at a shallow level.
An example of Jeremy, he’s a manager of product development for an apparel company and uses “Balance” wearable daily.
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What would be great is if “balance” is able to decipher what emails are necessary and what are not?
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Would it allow time for Jeremy to have a personal life by turning off business emails to focus on family and friends?
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Does it help Jeremy to find time to take care of himself through reminders to complete the scheduled work?
Concept
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“Balance” should be able to decipher the priority of each email, such as tag-along emails which do not pertain specifically to the wearer as well as ads from companies the wearer rarely shops.
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The wearable would assist the user to balance personal life such as upcoming events, dates, birthdays, and even time for fitness
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“Balance” will have the ability, with permission, to upload the wearer’s daily data to create an algorithm to tune into the wearer’s needs, much like Facebook ads.
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Much like an apple watch, “Balance” will not sell or disclose user information and be secure using sensors to prevent others from accessing data if the wearable is found other than by the user.
1
UX RESEARCH
Interview about existing smartwatch experience in special case of email synchronization and To-Dos list.
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Low-Fid PROTOTYPE
Brainstorming ideas over gathered user data and recommendations and making concept sketches accordingly.
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DIGITAL PROTOTYPE
Designing final prototype using sophisticated digital tools.
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USER
FEEDBACK
Noting down vulnerabilities and potential improvements.
51 yrs old, Sr. Manager
ROUTINE
Uses Apple watch at the office and outgoings.
Checks calendar, To-Do, Contact, Messages and Clock most of the time in the smartwatch.
FEEDBACK
Scroll in which way? I like the simplicity but most smartwatch users are going to be more tech-savvy.
I feel like my Apple watch already gives me this kind of interface. I am trying hard to understand what would be different from that.
32 yrs old, Employee
ROUTINE
Uses Fitbit at gym, office and home.
Checks pre-set goals, weather forecast, clock alarms, To-Do list all the time in the smart wearable.
FEEDBACK
Can we define the requirements specific to business people? I think we should get to know what they struggle with specifically. And then address those issues instead of having features similar to a smartwatch. For example, we could prioritize the alerts based on their urgency. Basically, get to know the problems of the users in a more detailed way.
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25 yrs old, Trainee
ROUTINE
Uses Samsung smartwatch at the office, college and outgoings.
Checks all mails, call logs, To-Do schedules and short news.
FEEDBACK
I need to know my upcoming schedules by blinking the watch and then I should be able to reschedule or accept/decline their confirmation of my respective attendance in an attempt to follow them in time.
Suitable Target Users
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For the typical working professional, a healthy work/life balance is challenging to achieve. Between meetings, professional development, families and friends, one can feel as if they’ve been pulled in many directions. It would be great for a wearable to have your back.
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For the self-employed gig economy worker, our app can help maintain the balance needed to work around a flexible schedule and to assist the wearer to find time for their personal life and block out this time frame in order to devote time to stay on task or relax.
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In an academic sense, maintaining a healthy study/life balance is important in meeting deadlines, staying on task, and better mental capacity. Having a wearable that can assist in staying within deadlines and encourage time for rest.
Business Hours
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Calendar - sync with office email
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File Sharing
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Spontaneous Meetings
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Office Contact speed dial activation
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Access to Office Address Book
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Able to Prioritize
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Secure Clients
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Block Spam - Security
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Phone Calls - Signals Wearer to Priority Calls
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Sends Micro-Interaction Messages
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Ex: “Yes, Sounds Great!
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Reply to last contacted or data shred person
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Instant meeting scheduling and Update schedule with live-data gathering from meeting places using google maps data
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Voice Recognition/Call
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Business Security (files, client names, etc)
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Stores in a secure cloud
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Personal Hours
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Calendar - sync with a personal email
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Photo Sharing
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Events/Dates Organizing
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Personal Contact speed dial activation
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Access to Personal Address Book
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Prioritize Family/Friends
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Block Spam - Security
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Phone Calls - Do not Disturb during meetings
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Sends Micro-Interaction Messages
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Ex: “In a meeting, be home after ​6 pm​”
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Access to meeting for the time frame
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Instant alert over colliding schedules and reminder alerts of priority tasks
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Voice Recognition/Call
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Personal Security (credit cards, photos, etc)
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Syncs back to personal cloud
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42 yrs old, Employee
This interface adds unique functionality to this application. The UI is also set in a user friendly way. However the one concern seeing this seems that a lot of data has been provided in such a small screen.
24 yrs old, Student
It looks like you are selecting Employee but the rest of the screens look more like the Client was selected. Try to use block print to make it easier to read. The 5th screen has too much on it. I very much like your trash and thumbs up drawings 😀
38 yrs old, Manager
The first screen can have a list of all actions. Like scheduling a meeting, calling someone, or messaging someone. The next level would be the persons ie the boss or colleagues. All similar things should be on one hierarchy level. I like the idea of scheduling rooms and time beforehand.
Novice User
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Age : 30
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Job : Supply chain management
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Gender : Male
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Technical knowledge : Beginner but never have used smartwatch or Fitbit
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Test completed in : 10 Minutes
Experience noted : Hard to know navigation for the first time but then very easy-to-use interface for everyday work
Design flaw : Abort the activity is easy due to the home dial on every screen but hard to come back to the last screen as it is usually hard to touch on the knob of the watch and there's no back button option
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A potential solution : Two-fingers-swipe can be introduced in the smartwatch to go back to the last screen in particular apps.
Intermediate User
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Age : 40
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Field : Marketing strategy
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Gender : Female
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Technical knowledge : Medium as has just been started use Mi Fitbit
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Conducted study of my prototype for atleast 15 mins
Experience noted : Satisfied with the design, having good reading experience respective to other existing scheduling apps and color pairing is good, standing out quick buttons & important texts.
Good abort option given for every activity, either urgent one or existing one makes truly user-friendly interface.
Design flaw : Back button should be there but not mandatory as after some time of use, the user will habituate with the knob touch go back feature. BUT sometimes the critical function icons/buttons are too small for comfortable touch.
A potential solution : No text or icons near a critical function for icon/button to stand it out. May be the size of an icon can be increased and text can be reduced using common terms/message can be converted into short texts using AI (but possible that the message can be misunderstood.)
Experienced User
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Age : 22
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Field : Computer science
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Gender : Male
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Technical knowledge : Expert as has been using both Apple watch and Mi Fitbit
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Conducted study of my prototype for at least 15 mins
Experience noted : Good design with the additional function of selecting meeting rooms and also liked the list of different tags for different meetings.
Design flaw : It could be a lack of design or not but what if all rooms are booked so the design does not provide any solution to that question.
A potential solution : Additional screens tackling the "all occupied rooms" scenario can be designed to directly show option of either abort the scheduling or next-day scheduling.
Wanna catch up over coffee/tea
or whatever edible in veg? 😜
