Future of Wearables

How might we inspire others to see the potential for wearable computing? After generative research and structured brainstorming sessions, we storyboarded innovative new wearable features. Many concepts relied on technologies that were not widespread at the time of this project but have gained in popularity since then, such as beacons and AR games.

Working down the design funnel, we exposed users to these concepts and gathered qualitative feedback about which ones resonated most, and how to put language and story around the concepts such that they’d be readily understandable.

Once we had prioritized the concepts, we created a set of videos to convey the strongest ones. Working with a production company, we created 11 videos with professional actors and film crews.

The central insight that made this project successful was that, if the viewer of the video wears a smartwatch, and we play a haptic track on the smartwatch that matches the haptics in the story they’re viewing, the viewer would perceive that they’re feeling what the actors are feeling. This allowed the viewer to “get” the design concept in a way that no amount of explanation could do. I gave a talk at the Wearables Technology Conference on this unique design process, which you can watch below.

My role was project lead, which included project management, brainstorming, research methodology, interaction design, visual, audio, and haptic design, casting, set design, and on-location video shoot supervision.

Here are the videos.