Smartwatches have come a long way since they started, expanding to allow for various functionalities from what we know on the phone into something way smaller and lighter. All around your wrist.
And so, as part of a semester long module, I came up with the idea of creating an Apple Watch/smartwatch interface around what my group decided to tackle during the module — an (imaginary) app interface intended for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students to find seats around the various school libraries.
Personally, I’ve never had a go at designing smartwatch interfaces, so why not give it a shot now?
The functionalities:
When it came to deciding functionalities for the mobile application, we came up with ideas such as booking seats, personalisation of amenities and favouriting of libraries and also a seat forecast that takes into account both your preferred amenities and favourite libraries.
To explain the seat forecast, I have to begin with the personalisation of amenities. This function meant that the student could choose around 3-4 amenities that they absolutely would require, for example a window seat, a charger for their laptop and phone, the distance from where they are or even to opt to use the library’s PC. They can also save libraries that they frequent.
Once they have saved the information on the app, the app will filter out based on what is the best library that fits their amenities requirements, and from there, the number of fitted seats available will be reflected.
For the seat forecast, it will use the number of fitted seats available over the total number of fitted seats to determine whether it will be a good or bad forecast. And if you’ve saved more libraries, the “algorithm” gets more complex to find you the best seat for you in school.
Planning:
For this challenge, I decided to go with the Apple Watch size of 42mm from the Apple Watch Series 3. I decided to scale down the functionalities and only show the seat forecast, along with a filtering function of your personalised amenities and favourite libraries.
In the event that the student does not have favourite libraries, it will show a list of libraries ranked based on the amenities they’ve saved.
Version 1 (on the left) was done during the brainstorm process, whereas version 2 (on the right) was a second design proposal just for this post.
There’s definitely a huge leap in terms of what each screen shows between versions, simply because after some research, it is best not to clutter the screen with too many words. Instead, to try and use visuals to represent those information. This way, it’ll be easier to navigate through the interface whilst on the go.
Final Design:
After planning, I came up with the final design, likening closer to the 2nd plan and with that in mind, let me explain with different scenarios to understand what sort of interfaces were needed.
The User:
This user has saved 2 libraries from the app: the Lee Wee Nam library and the ADM library. The user has also saved 3 amenities that they would like for it to be reflected on the watch: plugs, window seats and discussion spots.
Scenario 1: It’s a good forecast
When you click into the “app” on the watch, the watch will display a good forecast first, and the user can swipe left to see the libraries they’ve saved, ranking the best libraries to study at, at the top.
A progress indicator is used so that there’s a quick indication of how many fitted seats there are, that fulfils the 3 amenities the user requires. Plus, it will indirectly provide a gauge for the user to guess the quantity of fitted seats there are without having to display a number.
Still, the user can tap into the library to see exact seat numbers.
From there, they can head to the library.
Scenario 2: It’s a bad forecast but still want the saved libraries
In this scenario, the app will display a bad forecast and a button will appear to suggest to the user better spots around the school that satisfies the amenities requirements.
In the event that they still want to go to their favourite libraries, they can swipe to the next page to see it.
From our surveys during the module, there were students that said the “suggestion” might not be that helpful since they already like what they like, or already have plans to head to their saved library. Also that they might just head to their favourite library anyway and wait for an available seat. Which is why the option to view their initial saved choices is just a swipe away.
If they tap into one of the libraries, they can actually reduce their amenities saved, to get a higher seat number. After all, all these 3 amenities are taken into account when finding seats, as the app assumes that the student wants/needs all 3 of them.
In the event that the student doesn’t mind not having some of the amenities, they can adjust the filter by tapping the amenities buttons at the bottom and updating them.
From there, an updated seat amount will be shown.
Scenario 3: It’s a bad forecast, takes up recommendations
In the event that the user doesn’t mind taking up the suggested libraries, the user can hit the “recommend me” button and suggestions will appear.
Upon choosing one of the suggested libraries, the user has the option to get directions to that library, as it is likely that the library might be new to the user.
The watch will vibrate to update the user to either walk, change direction or take public transport etc.
The user can also manually update the map and the position with the button on the bottom left corner, and the map will be zoomed in or out correspondingly.
I decided to keep this design and the functionalities simple because a smartwatch should be something you could quickly glance at without having to fiddle around too much.
Which is why the amount of steps in each scenario is not a lot. Although it might mean that certain functionalities are not available, they can always turn to the mobile app to do more.
This was definitely an interesting challenge and I do aim to do more (and maybe write more on this platform). Let me know what you think about this and if you enjoyed this, feel free to leave some claps!
