Several years ago, HP Inc. decided to enter the wearables market. Their approach was unique: HP would provide the engineering and technology; designers and watchmakers would create the watches. Each watch would look and feel like a classic analog timepiece but would have built-in intelligence and connectivity to a smartphone app.
HP brought in Particle Design for help with several projects all tied to their smartwatches’ UX design.
HP came to Particle Design with several product design ideas and user hypotheses that they wanted to test before moving into product development.
For each, Particle conducted a series of interviews and exercises with prospective users. We determined which of their suppositions were correct and which were not and identified the ideas that resonated most. We helped shape and redirect their strategy to focus on what mattered to users.
HP also asked Particle Design to wear test two versions of a newly developed men’s smartwatch. They had the prototypes but wanted to understand the out-of-box and set-up experience. They also wanted to know which features users found helpful.
Particle asked a group of potential users to wear the prototypes for ten days and maintain a diary. We helped HP streamline the information provided and steps involved with set-up. We also helped pinpoint what features were most useful and where others fell short.
To date, HP has partnered with several designers and watchmakers to create and bring to market stunning timepieces with digital capabilities, all of which incorporate insights brought to light by the Particle team.
About 6 months after I purchased an Apple Watch, I stopped wearing it…the beauty of the Coach Bleecker Smart Watch is that when you are wearing it, it simply looks like a nice watch with a regular analog face.
Gear Diary, November 2016