Always On(line)? User Experience of Smartwatches and their Role within Multi-Device Ecologies

Marta E. Cecchinato, Anna L. Cox, Jon Bird

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Users have access to a growing ecosystem of devices (desk-top, mobile and wearable) that can deliver notifications and help people to stay in contact. Smartwatches are gaining popularity, yet little is known about the user experience and their impact on our increasingly always online culture. We report on a qualitative study with existing users on their everyday use of smartwatches to understand both the added value and the challenges of being constantly connected at the wrist. Our findings show that users see a large benefit in receiving notifications on their wrist, especially in terms of helping manage expectations of availability. Moreover, we find that response rates after viewing a notification on a smartwatch change based on the other devices available: laptops prompt quicker replies than smartphones. Finally, there are still many costs associated with using smartwatch-es, thus we make a series of design recommendations to improve the user experience of smartwatches.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI '17 Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherACM
Pages3557-3568
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)978-1-4503-4655-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017 - Denver, United States
Duration: 6 May 201711 May 2017

Conference

Conference2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period6/05/1711/05/17

Keywords

  • Smartwatches
  • wearable
  • autoethnography
  • context-aware
  • notifications
  • user experience
  • device ecologies
  • multi-device experience
  • cross-device interaction

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