SCHOOL PROJECT
Apple Watch Activity Rings Case Study
DURATION
2022. 12. (2 weeks)
CAPACITY
UX Researcher, UX Designer (Solo project)
TYPE
Smartwatch (Apple Watch)
OVERVIEW
“Close Your Rings”
This is a powerful line from an Apple Watch commercial. Apple launched its Apple Watch 1st generation in 2015, and it has become a best-selling wearable device. Its activity rings system hasn’t changed over 7 years. I was taking the “Notational System” class, and I thought a successful notation system should advocate users’ needs. This project started my personal question and led me to redesign the Apple Watch’s activity rings.
FINAL DESIGN PROTOTYPE
WHAT ARE ACTIVITY RINGS?
Activity rings show an individual’s daily progress toward Move, Exercise, and Stand goals. The ring-shaped activity rings have been used since 2015.
RESEARCH
Usage of Smartwatches
According to research, smartwatch users’ main usage was Clock, Workout, Notification (Incoming notification), Message management, and other apps (timer, virtual assistant, and other 3rd party applications).
McMillan, Donald, et al. "Situating Wearables: Smartwatch Use in Context." The 2017 CHI Conference, 2017,https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025993
Motivational Factors on Continuous Smartwatch Usage
Dehghani, Milad. "Exploring the Motivational Factors on Continuous Usage Intention of Smartwatches among Actual Users." Behaviour & Information Technology, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2018.1424246.
The Benefits of the Ring Shape
Sketching various shapes, I was able to discover three advantages of the ring shape.
Eight key determinants of the continuous usage intention of smartwatches are identified through a netnography analysis, namely perceived usefulness, ease of use, enabling technologies, functionality, compatibility, fashnology(Fashion+Technology), healthtology, and complementary goods.
INTERVIEW
Type: Semi-structured Interview
Participant: 7 Apple Watch Users (Age between 22 ~ 41)
Interview Topic: Buying Motives, Main Usage, Satisfied Points, Dissatisfied Points, and Activity Rings
Quotes from Participants
Insights from Interview
Some participants’ answers reminded me of the role of a notation system. I thought a closed notation system has an advantage in that there are clear rules, but has a disadvantage in that the limit of information that can be expressed is clear. A notation system can be successful only when it can express diverse information simply, such as music scores or mathematical notation.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Apple Watch 8 commercial claims that “The future of health is on your wrist.” However, users can’t personalize their activity rings. This is a problem because the information that the current activity rings show (Move, Activity, Standing) might not be what users want. My redesign should enable Apple Watch users to see their health-related info better and help motivate them to be active more.
BREAKDOWN OF SOLUTION
Allow users to choose the activity they want for the Activity Rings
Allow users to choose the color they want for the Activity Rings
Add “Matching Activity“ sorting on the sharing screen
DESIGN HYPOTHESES
If the Apple watch allows users to modify their activity rings, then users get information that is right for them.
If the end of the Activity rings can be used to indicate the repetition or other information, then the users see more info on their wrist.
If activity sharing allows sorting by matching activity, then users are able to compare their activity with someone even though they are using non-default activity rings.
HOW MIGHT WE’S
How might we offer a personalized activity ring system?
How might we help people could share their activity even with the non-default activity rings?
NEW ACTIVITY RINGS DESIGN
Activity Rings Main Screen
Sharing Screen
REFLECTIONS
1. Recruit more users while conducting interviews
This was a personal project with very limited resources. I could only gather 7 Apple Watch users aged between 22-35. If I had been able to gather more users outside of the current interviewees, I would have been able to obtain more objective design insights.
2. Create a comparison rubric to evaluate the improvement
I interviewed people before I decided what part of the Apple Watch could be improved. After the redesign process, I showed the design and gathered feedback from the interviewees. If I had a chance to do it again, I would make a rubric and use a 4-point Likert scale to remove neutral choices so that I could evaluate my design in more detail.