Presentation
User Expectations for Comfort, Discomfort, and Wearability of Wrist-Worn Devices
DescriptionThe development of new wrist-worn wearable technologies is growing rapidly, with contemporary products featuring a combination of sensors and computing devices. Comfort has been extensively studied and identified as one of the most important factors in the adoption of wearable devices, yet there is still no single commonly-accepted definition. Researchers have also examined connections between comfort and discomfort, but less work has connected to the concept of wearability. Extending the work from Zhang et al. (1996), we conducted a series of three between-subjects surveys designed to comprehensively account for different definitions, better distinguish between the different constructs, and detect device-specific differences (watch, fitness tracker, smartwatch). We found that comfort and wearability may be interchangeable in wrist-wearable research, but discomfort should be considered separately. Device function impacted user expectations for comfort, discomfort, and wearability, meaning that results from research conducted on watches may differ from that of smartwatches.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeWednesday, September 11th9:45am - 10:05am MST
LocationFLW Salon D
Product Design