The Challenge
In September 2015 NASA launched a competition on Freelancer.com:
“We (NASA) are interested in the emerging world of smartwatch technology and are looking to leverage this technology to create a smartwatch app that could be helpful to astronauts . The challenge is to design the general user interface for smartwatch applications for use on the International Space Station.”
The brief specified the following :
- The design should be for a single app with multiple functions (not separate apps).
- The design should direct attention to the appropriate information for a task and increase efficiency
- Be legible on the smaller Samsung Gear screen
- Innovative representations of data displayed on a Smartwatch are highly encouraged.
The app would be used to improve upon the four following areas :
- Crew Timeline — Will display an agenda view of the timeline as well as a way to easily navigate to another day in the past or future.
- Caution & Warnings — Will display color coded cautions and warnings.
- Communication Status — Will display whether or not the vehicle is currently able to communicate with the ground through either voice/video.
- Timers — Will be able to set timers for procedures or until next activity.
The Team
Diane Faidy and Tom Moran are Senior UX Designers at TH_NK. Their experience coves a wide range of sectors from banking and government to entertainment and telecoms. They create awesome experiences across multiple platforms.
“Being a designer is about putting yourself in the shoes of your service/product’s users and define solutions to improve their lives. It’s been fascinating and rewarding to research what life is like in the ISS and design an app accordingly. We’re really looking forward to user testing ;-)” — Diane
“There is something inherently exciting about designing for astronauts onboard the ISS. It’s the pinnacle of technology and human ingenuity. To have the opportunity to experience and come up with ways to help astronauts has been a great challenge and huge fun” — Tom
Additional special thanks to Shelly Cawood for her help throughout the project.
Research and Development
As part of the competition brief, NASA provided screenshots of the current system. With limited additional information we interpreted these screenshots in an attempt to gain insight into the types of problems the astronauts may face.
The Crew Timeline
Looking like an excel spreadsheet, the Crew Timeline screenshot is difficult to understand without a prior knowledge of what the acronyms and abbreviations stand for. One major insight we were able to draw from this was an understanding of how tightly regulated the astronaut’s day is. From the moment they wake up, their day is a hard set list of actions and tasks.
The black and white bar along the top also illustrates orbits around the earth and indicates when it will be light or dark (day or night). This could be quite disorientating to the astronauts and may affect the task they are currently working on.
Caution and Warning
It’s very difficult to interpret a screenshot like this without explanation and training. Pages like this highlight the complexity of the information an astronaut has to deal with on a day to day basis. This was also the first time we had to start to understand what to include and what to leave out. The astronauts have laptops with them, so the watch app should support and not replace the existing technology.
Communication Status
The communication board gives a real-time status of the connection with Earth. The interface the astronauts work with is minimal but very practical. There’s no room for unnecessary complication, but there’s also little thought about design or clarity.
Timers
Onboard the ISS timing is critical so it’s important the astronauts are able to set timers easily and accurately.
“I was keen to create a timer application that actually benefited from being on a watch face, rather than trying to make a traditional timer work on a smaller screen. We needed to think about size, touch and ease of use.” — Tom
The Hardware
The Samsung Gear 2 was launched in April 2014. Unlike previous Samsung wearables, the Gear 2 was built using the Samsung-developed Tizen operating system and not Android. Apps can be built using HTML5 meaning the interfaces can be original and stylish.
The screen resolution is 320x320px 41mm super AMOLED and comes with a heart rate monitor, bluetooth and 2 mega pixel 720p camera.
Using the Samsung Gear 2 reduces costs and is also easier to develop for.
The Users
When approaching any UX brief, it’s important to start with the end user in mind. Collecting data through interviews and user testing can be vital to developing an experience that identifies and rectifies common problems or pain points.
Designing for astronauts is problematic for the obvious reason that only a handful of people on Earth know what it’s like to be onboard the ISS. We had to therefore make a lot of assumptions and presumptions regarding life in space and design accordingly.
Due to improvements in data speeds and social media, astronauts are able to communicate to the world like never before; be that through Twitter or creating YouTube videos.
Taking all this in mind, we created the following design:
Lock Screen Dials
The lock screen has been designed to provide a wide array of information at a glance. Markers orbit the central clock along the dials indicating progress through the task, schedule and orbit.
Time
In the centre of the design is the time. This is just as important in space as it is on Earth as the astronaut’s days are strictly timetabled. Keeping track of time is incredibly important.
Task
The tasks and activities assigned to an astronaut are precisely scheduled. The inner dial gives an indication of the astronaut’s progress through the currently assigned task or activity.
Schedule
We decided to colour co-ordinate the various tasks and activites that make up the astronaut’s day. The dial provides at-a-glance information as to what tasks are coming up and what to expect over the course of the day.
Earth orbit
The outer dial indicates when it will be light or dark onboard. This could be helpful for certain tasks onboard as well as helping the astronauts acclimatise to the constantly changing light levels.
“Initially, the lock screen was used as an indicator of light or darkness, with additional information about date, time and orbit. We then introduced the idea of the colour co-ordinated schedule with a prominence on current task. We experimented with what schedule information to provide, including one design that took account for sleep — we decided against this as we wanted halfway through the day to be at the bottom of the circle and not two thirds of the way around”. — Tom
Home Screen and Site Structure
The homepage puts a predominant focus on the task currently assigned to the astronaut.
“We thought about bringing the features together in a way that would require the least effort or thinking”. — Diane
The task progress dial is continued from the lock screen, however now the astronaut is shown :
- Current time
- Time allocated for task
- Name of the task
- Time remaining
Based on the brief we then provided quick link access to Coms status, Crew Schedule, Timer and Personal Schedule.
From early drafts, having a dial on the homepage with four icons in the corners seemed to make the most sense. Developing and fine tuning these took longer. We took careful consideration with the icon design to be clear and informative.
“Though predominantly an exercise in UX, I wanted to make sure there was an attention to detail in the icon design. Getting an icon just right can take time, but it’s very important that the user instantly understands what an icon will do, or where it will take them” — Tom
Task Feature
Tapping the central task provides additional information as well as feature specific functionality.
“We thought about each and every feature in a way that would adapt to the life in the ISS, avoiding distraction and surfacing any important information when it seemed important.” — Diane
To avoid distraction, the functionality of the watch is dictated by the task currently assigned.
- Task — Includes the ability to request further information or contact NASA directly
- Call Family — Gives the astronaut the time currently at home along with the functionality to start a chat instant message or make a call
- Free — In free periods the astronauts can look up health stats and information as well as play games or challenges.
Notifications
Throughout the day the astronauts can be alerted by various notifications.
Having the ability to access cautions and warnings seemed to be a very important feature, although only illustrating how to access them felt like doing half the job. The use of notifications became an obvious way for warnings to manifest themselves to astronauts.” — Diane
Colour
We wanted the colour of the app and notifications to change depending on the task or message. Activities in the morning are bright and energising, evening activities are calm and relaxing. A quick glimpse at the watch would give the astronaut a sense of time and which moment of the day or night it is. Cautions are in a neutral colour so as to not alarm too heavily while warnings are in an orangey-red colour to gain attention and energise.
“A day in the ISS is ruled by more than 15 night and day times. The feeling of the morning breeze, the daylight as a cue to understand what time it might be, the sunset are concepts that no longer exist once you’re in orbit. We used colours to bring back some of those indicators we live with as humans.” — Diane
Haptic
Along with visual prompts we also wanted to build in an additional layer of communication with haptic vibrations.
As well as traditional haptic notification logic (light buzz to alert, long hard buzz to demand attention, etc), we wanted to create an additional smart layer of logic to help energise or relax astronauts.
We were keen to explore whether haptic vibrations could effect energy levels in the astronauts, helping them to relax or wake up. We were inspired by Doppel, “By rhythmically pulsing on the inside of your wrist, doppel harnesses our innate response to rhythm. We react to doppel’s pulse in a similar way to upbeat or downbeat music but with no noise or distraction.”
- Morning — The astronaut is woken up with a ‘Good morning’ message as well as a haptic pulse that matches their average active heartbeat, this encourages waking up and energising.
- Task — When the astronaut has a new task a single haptic pulse alerts them. A short light pulse is subtle enough to notify without heavy distraction.
- Cautions and Warnings — A long pulse alerts the astronaut to information that requires attention. A soft pulse for a caution and a hard pulse for a warning.
- Sleep — To relax the astronaut at the end of the day the watch pulses to their resting heartbeat, encouraging sleep and relaxation.
Personal Schedule
The personal schedule of the astronaut is the backbone of their day. Easily being able to access this helps them to be more efficient and organised. The schedule is a simple list of colour co-ordinated tasks in a vertical column.
Tapping a task provides more information, the astronaut can:
- Read further details
- See how long is scheduled for the task
- Know where on the ISS they will need to be
- Request further information
- Contact NASA directly
- See a list of other crew member who have worked on the task previously
Tapping on the calendar icon allows the astronaut to see schedules in the future. A simple calendar interface prioritises days in the near future but does allow the astronaut to skip much further forward if required.
Crew schedule
Schedule
The astronaut is also able to view the other crew member’s schedules. The main Crew Schedule screen is an overview of what each crew member is currently working on and where they are.
“Considering the size of the ISS, we thought being able to locate astronauts in the station could be really useful in all sorts of situations. Unfortunately, we don’t have information whether there is such a technology onboard the ISS or not. In case they don’t, we thought using the Beacons technology may work.” — Diane
Tapping on an individual displays their full day’s itinerary. The astronaut can swipe left or ride to view other crew member’s schedules.
Voice Message
A long press on a crew member allows the astronaut to send a short voice message to them.
Communication Status and Cautions
Communication Status
A simple info-graphic to quickly inform the astronaut about the status of the communication channels. The design references the dials from the previous screens.
Cautions and Warnings
We decided to combine communication and cautions into the same section as they both regard the status of the ISS. The cautions page is a simple list (similar to schedules) with colour coding. Astronauts can tap on a caution to find out more information.
Timer
We initially looked at new ways of setting timers and countdowns, including moving a marker around a dial and setting multiple timers.
We eventually developed a timer that works along a single timeline. The design combines a stopwatch and countdown timer in one.
- Stopwatch — The stopwatch can be started by a single tap. The timeline then moves behind the action icon. The astronaut can pause and restart at anytime.
- Timer — Dragging the start icon along the timeline allows the astronaut to set a time to countdown from.
- Multiple — for multiple or timers that require hours, or more precise timings the astronaut can tap the top right icon.
“Though potentially simple, I wanted to make the timer experience unique to the device — essentially design something that works best on the Samsung Gear 2. We inititally explored wheels and dials but decided this was too fiddly and intricate for a small screen. Using a single timeline that you slide back and fourth along seemed logical and unique” — Tom
Prototype Film
It’s hard to bring a design to live in flat designs so we created a prototype video that gave a feel for how the app could be navigated. We included some basic animations and interactions to make the app feel real.
“This challenge revealed once again that designing an interface, for astronauts or music-loving teenagers must be thought in its wider context: the experience is core, which implies understanding the users needs and the situations they are facing. What are they trying to do? How can we make this smart and not distracting” — Diane
“Due to the clockwork nature of the ISS, the astronauts are treated like precise cogs in a machine. Their days are scheduled, their tasks specifically timed. We wanted to make sure that not only was our app functional and helpful but that it put the human first. We put them in touch with the other crew members, brought them colours to energise and brought their families to them. Though it felt like science fiction it was important to put the human first and make the experience as practical and intuitive as possible.” — Tom
Research articles
A collection of the types of articles, blogs and apps that we discussed during the project.
