We were asked by Google to explore how people might use a smartwatch to get around a city. We ran two phases of research.

In the discovery phase, we focused on how participants currently get around the city and how they may envision using a smart watch. We got participants to talk through how they currently use navigation tools and what sorts of metrics are the most important to them whilst travelling from A to B, and they illustrated this for us through a card sort. We then followed up with a short co-design session, and participants were asked to draw what a watch face would look like during navigation.

In the contextual test, we designed a prototype based on the drawings we had and got participants to test it out in real life by getting from the Google office to the Guardian offices. To get a good POV, we got them to wear a GoPro so we could see what they were seeing on the screen.

Some key insights from our research were that a smartwatch is good for short distances, haptic feedback is important, and maps and seeing where you are in relation to things around you is essential.

Our stakeholders initially thought no one would want a map but both sessions revealed that folks want to be able to see where they are in relation to things around them, so even if it's small, a map is essential. We were also able to convince the team to not design the watch for a driving experience as we were able to pull on existing academic research that identified this as dangerous. Our use of GoPros as an innovative methodology added a unique perspective to the study.