Ubiquitous Computing:A look at the design usability of Ubiquitous computing devices.
Today, we will be looking at some ubiquitous computing products and concepts, and evaluate the pros and cons of these devices. But, before we get into that let’s look into what is ubiquitous computing. According to Mark Weiser of Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) “Ubiquitous Computing is a concept of integrating computers seamlessly to the world”. This essentially means computers that we interact with can be anything and can do a variety of functionality anytime and anywhere. These devices can be divided into 3 different scales inch, foot, and yard scale devices. Examples of these are smartphones, tablets, and Interactive billboards. Now let’s get to the devices that we’ll be looking at today.
Fitbit Blaze
Fitbit Blaze is the hybrid model of the fitness tracker and smartwatches. Unlike the other fitness devices, Fitbit Blaze includes the larger screen display. With the appealing color LCD display, it offers the notifications for your text messages, music player, alarm and basic fitness stats such as your heart rate and steps. The blaze offers the fitness features such as SmartTrack which will track your exercise automatically. It also can track your sleeping routines and notes your restless on a minute-by-minute timeline.
Design usability
Pros:
* Compares to other Fitbit devices, Fitbit Blaze has a large screen which gives a better visual display.
* Adopting the smart-watch design, the button on the left side of the watch provides the home and back command. Whereas the two buttons on the right side can be used the volume controls for music. You can use the right-side buttons to select the exercise options in case your hands are gloved and can’t able to interact with the touchscreen.
* The watch body can be easily popped out from the waistband and can change to another personalised bands and frames. Fitbit Blaze provides varieties of fashionable waistbands and frames range from the classic design to the luxury.
* Via the simple yet attractive UI app, the device can be easily synchronized with your mobile device to keep track of your health records such as workouts routine, challenges etc. You can add your friends via their email address and can share/view the workout activities.
Cons:
* The large bezels around the side of the watch wasted the space. Rather, the screen should have a much bigger size or the device can be much smaller.
* The touch screen is often unresponsive which requires user need for swiping the screen left and right rather fire up with a flick the wrist.
* Although the device can easily remove from the waistband, putting back into the frame can be confusing. As there is no indication of which side need to put front, you might put it the wrong way up and can only notice when you wear the watch on.
* Just like a smartwatch, although Fitbit Blaze can accept texts and phone call alerts, it didn’t support the third-party apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
For any additional info regarding this device you can check the following links: https://www.fitbit.com/sg/blaze?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3-mCvPv52QIV0AorCh0CsgL8EAAYASAAEgKggfD_BwE
Echo Show
The Amazon Echo Show is the smart speaker with a touch screen display screen which provides features such as the video calling, video watching, whether focus, displaying news and reading the stories or recipes with more advanced smart home controls. With the help of Amazon voice assistant ‘Alexa’ in the device, you can provide the voice command to achieve your desired activities without lifting a finger. ‘Alexa’, Amazon addressed as ‘The brain behind Echo Show’, is built in the cloud so she is always getting smarter and can able to adapt your speech patterns over time. Echo Show not only can be used as the entertainment purposes, it is also can be used as a live camera feed from your front door, turn on the fan or dime the lights from the couch — all hand free!
Design Usability
Pros:
* Echo Show is simple yet subtle design with the 7inch clear touchscreen display.
* Most of the features can activate hands-free such as watching video flash briefings, seeing music lyrics, checking the security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, browsing and listening to Audible audiobooks etc. This can give better user’s engagement experiences rather than they need to memorize or browse through the device for the desired features.
* It provides the instant feedback to the users such as there will be a glowing screen that lights up when you enter the room or there will be the red light bar with the mute sign at the bottom of the screen when you mute the device.
Cons:
* Echo Show always listening object in your house so it might active accidentally with the other voice simulations.
* Amazon design ‘Alexa’- speech recognition assistant only available in English, which is the limitation for the global reach.
In terms of security concern, you can ask ‘Alexa’ to active the ‘drop in’ feature of your contacts which starts the call without them having to answer their Echo.
For any additional info regarding this device you can check the following links: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-Show-Alexa-Enabled-Black/dp/B01J24C0TI
Whirlpool Interactive Stove Concept
In 2014, Whirlpool a company who primarily deals with appliances such as refrigerators, washers and so on. Shocked everyone in CES by showing a concept product. The interactive Stove. This unique product combines induction cooking with the tablet. Allowing users to do social media, check emails, and browse the internet whilst cooking. This is all possible thanks to the induction technology where magnets are used to run an electric current and heat the pots without heating the surface keeping the touch screen from heating up.
Design Usability
Pros:
* Follows a similar gesture-based control system like a tablet thus usability and adoption would be simple.
* The convenience of being able to search for recipes online and browsing all in comforts without the need of a smartphone or tablet.
* Future of integrating with the Internet of Things such as smart fridges and other devices such as audio systems.
* Voice commands to assist with the kitchen duties.
Cons:
* The technology needed to achieve this is still in development.
* Multiple users using the cooktop may cause issues such as moving the pots while cooking to make space would require a different part of the stove to heat up thus possibly messing up cooking times.
* Having multiple windows or tabs on while multitasking can obstruct the user’s view.
For any additional info regarding this device you can check the following links: https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5285250/whirlpool-touchscreen-stovetop-concept
As technology continues to innovate the more devices we will be able to interact with. Ubiquitous computing has opened the door to new possibilities for the future. For further insight you can look into the topic of Internet of Things or you can click here for a brief video on IoT.
Thank you for reading. :)
