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

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Users have access to a growing ecosystem of devices (desktop, 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 smartwatches, thus we make a series of design recommendations to improve the user experience of smartwatches.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
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    Published: 02 May 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. autoethnography
    2. context-aware
    3. cross-device interaction
    4. device ecologies
    5. multi-device experience
    6. notifications
    7. smartwatches
    8. user experience
    9. wearable

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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    • (2024)Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and ChallengesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374178:CSCW1(1-33)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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