Designing a Wearable Experience
An exploration with iBeacons, sensors, and a simple wearable
With wearables taking over the mobile market, we’ll see more and more organizations designing wearable experiences. With Disney World’s, “Magic Bands”, paving the way for the entertainment park industry, it won’t be long before we see other theme parks utilizing the same technology.
As part of our research and development initiative at Universal Mind, our Innovation Team set out to design what an Indoor Trampoline Fitness Park experience would be like by leveraging these disposable wearable devices. The team explored the entire park experience, identifying the most significant factors and best mechanisms to enhance the whole experience.
Adults & Kids
As with most wearable park experiences, parents are the owners of the device connection and set-up process. We took this workflow into consideration when thinking about the customer journey. Upon entering the park, parents would collect a wristband for their child to wear, and sync the wristband to their smartphone using bluetooth. This process could include a wide variety of privacy settings controlling how much or how little data could be used. The reusable wristband would have NFC sensors to pinpoint and trigger certain experiences through out the park. For example, strategically placed cameras could take activity shots of kids enjoying a fun game.
iBeacons & Indoor Location
Sensors like Estimote iBeacons could be used to trigger interactive micro-location areas. Entering these areas would identify who else is in the area and would notify them to join a group using notification lights on the wristband. Joining or creating a dodgeball team, for instance, could be based on who is around you. Once a dodgeball game is started, collecting the realtime data based on these micro-locations could showcase local stats and rankings to drive realtime leaderboards or see who jumped the highest in the park. This micro-location data could also help with capacity management and security. Team members in the park could keep track of the number of customers. Parents could make sure they know where their kids are getting notified if they happen to exit a certain area. In the unfortunate case a child gets hurt or lost, this could be used to notify the parent using the app.
Encourage Activity with Competition
Competition is a huge motivator to a healthy lifestyle. Apps like Nike+ and RunKeeper feature team competitions to help motivate the user. This could also be implemented in the theme park experience to encourage others to join-in and compete with one another, all while being more active. From unlocking badges to a “King of the hill” battle similar to those online mass multiplayer games. The actual wearable device could even change color to show a badge icon for your ranking.
Jump Height
Making jump height relatable will be a key to making this experience entertaining. Instead of just showing feet/meters, maybe comparing it to something that kids and adults can relate to. For example, taking well-known buildings or statues could help make the jump height relatable and fun. Utilizing physical objects as jump hight comparisions allows a but of unknown mystery to what object is next and gives the user something to work for.
Realtime Stats
Capturing realtime stats using a wearable device opens the door to unlimited possibilities. Being able to have proximity-based competitions on your activity level adds another dimension of gamification.
A gamification tactic used in several other games such as Random Events or Unknown Achievements to keep users coming back for more or to keep trying for more to see what the next Achievements is.
This is the year of the Experience.
This was an exercise in exploring what an experience might be like for this new wearable devices. Have you thought about how a wearable device and Internet of Things could enhance your experiences?
I’m the VP of Experience Innovation at Universal Mind — A Digital Agency. You can follow me on twitter at @merhl.
