Exploring User Micro-Behaviors Towards Five Wearable Device Types in Everyday Learning-Oriented Scenarios

ABSTRACT

With advances in areas such as sensors and machine learning, wearable technologies will have increased potential to support our daily lives. Even though today’s landscape of smart wearable devices is highly varied, the real-world adoption of wearables has remained lukewarm. We propose that a key reason is that we currently only have a surface-level understanding of people’s interaction behaviors with wearable devices. A deeper understanding of user behaviors toward different wearable devices will help to inform wearable design for more seamless user experiences. We present an empirical study with 50 participants that explore people’s micro-behaviors toward five types of smart wearable devices (wristband, ring, clip, necklace, glasses) in a lab-based information-gathering context. A micro-analysis of participants’ session videos and interviews showed that people have different behaviors and attitudes in terms of affordances and functionality for different forms of wearables giving rise to a variety of design implications.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contribution of Beth Nam in helping to design and set up the study environment, and in assisting in some of the study sessions. We thank all the participants who took part in our study. This project was supported by by NSF grant #1566469 Lived Science Narratives: Meaningful Elementary Science through Wearable Technologies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neha Rani

Neha Rani is a PhD student and research assistant in the Embodied Learning & Experience (ELX) Lab at the University of Florida. Her research interests include wearable technologies in a learning context and educational context-aware systems.

Sharon Lynn Chu

Sharon Lynn Chu is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Computing group in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research interests include mainly learning technologies and embodied interaction. She leads the ELX Lab.

Qing Li

Qing Li is a Bachelor student at the Santa Fe College and a volunteer researcher in the ELX lab. Her research interests include learning science and learning technology.