“Seek for the perfect moment”
Smartwatch App Design Guideline
In design as in life, every migration process is a hard one to achieve. Just as moving from one place to another implies the change of paradigms, codes and language, when it comes to migrating from bigger screens to smaller, 320 pixels average screens, the evolution of both physical and mental habits is demanded.
In this ever changing process, precision and context become the main qualities to consider while designing for a SmartWatch. Whereas an average analog, non smart watch offers a precise delivery of the hour, minutes and seconds at a glance, a SmartWatch should excel at delivering messages and notifications to the user.
This is the very point when context becomes most important: the value of the notification will increase when delivered in the proper situation. Receiving an alert for the ultimate sale at a convenience shop, for instance, will only make real sense for the user while he or she is passing by it, not when he is driving his way back to home. Then, it will be just a waste of time.
Content is relevant to the point where it is transmitted in the right context; taking into consideration cultural, geographical and demographical aspects of the user.
To effectively engage with the users determine a span of interaction or message appropriate for the time being. Doing so in the right context creates a window of opportunity develop a ’moment’ (or ’micromoment’) for the user.
After asking for a cab, a message is displayed to the users' wrist at the right timing. First when the car is arriving and later when it changes when the car is out side. Since the first message the driver's information is available in the smartwatch.
The smartwatch is a type of personal assistant, that notifies a person of his appointments. When events include destination, a notification is displayed telling the user to leave early to the appointment because of the present context: heavy traffic.
When arriving to a city after 30 minutes of being in the airport, the user verifies notifications on the smartwatch. In one of the displayed cards, there is a weather notification with the climate of the city he departed from.