The first step of creating an app for a smartwatch was to do some research. I decided to do a competitor analysis as this is a great way to find out what other successful companies are doing, and this will help me to create my own designs knowing what works and what doesn’t. Since my app was a Electronics Hub on a watch, I wanted to look at some other apps that done something similar. I researched mobile apps as well as some smartwatch as I wanted to get a variety of data.
SmartThings is a Samsung app that allows the users to control electronic devices in their home from their phone. This includes cameras, lights, TVs, speakers and more. Downloading the app itself was very useful as I was able to see what different features they had, the onboarding experience, and the UI and UX. Since I didn’t have an account or any devices that could connect I could only do a limited amount on the app, but from what I seen I was very impressed with. The app has a very nice UI, and getting devices connected seems easy enough, with good reviews online singing it’s praises. Researching Smart Things has definitely given me an idea of what a electronics hub app should look like, and how it should function for the user.
SmartThings also have a companion app for Samsung smartwatches. From what I gathered in my research, this serves as simply a companion app, so only has basic features such as turning on lights and TVs. I do like the design of the UI and think that it serves it’s purpose of giving users the ability to control a few things in their house, but for my app I would like the user to have full control over a lot of devices in their home, making daily tasks easier and allowing the house to be controlled by them. The colour scheme throughout stays consistent with the black background which I think is important, and I love how when the light is turned the screen changes colour, making it more responsive to the user. Something that I would change about the SmartThings app is that there is very limited features and it is very basic. I think that adding more features such as being able to adjust the brightness of lights would enhance the user experience of the app.
Hive is another electronics hub app that allows users to control their home from their phone. This one also includes heating control, which I thought was quite innovative. Hive is also accessible on smartwatches, which is great as it means that I can take inspiration from what they are doing, and apply it to my own project. From some images I found online, I really love how the UI looks, even though it is only on a smartwatch.
Hive is one of the brands that I really wanna take a deeper look at, as they have a great smartwatch app, which is going to be doing pretty much the same thing that my app will be doing. The app has a lot of features that my app will also have such as being able to change tone and brightness of lights, and adjusting heat settings. Since they are a direct competitor I want to learn as much as I can about the UX and UI, as I think that this will be very beneficial for the development of my own app. As you can see in the images below, Hive use a list for their different devices, which makes it straightforward for the user to select what device they want to adjust. When the lights are turned off they will be grey, and when switched on they will turn white. This clearly displays to the user that the light is switched on, and this is something that I could implement into my own design. When you select on a specific light another screen gives the user the option to change the brightness and change the tone of the light. I love the circles indicating the different tones, but I’m not too sure of the circle progress bar for the brightness. I think it would be better if it was just a simple horizontal progress bar that the user can drag to adjust the brightness. I also think that there is a little too much text, making the display clustered. If they utilised icons a bit more and only used text when it is needed the UI could look better and the user experience could be more enjoyable.
I then wanted to research Apple’s smartwatch. As someone who has an Apple Watch, I can say that they have a very clean UI, and using it is so simple and straight forward. I wanted to take a deeper look into what makes it so nice to use, so I looked up a few different screens to see what I could find. From the images below we can clearly see how they use very minimal elements in each screen. There is no more text than is needed and they also often use icons to help the user understand what they are displaying. They use weather icons to describe what the weather will be like, and when displaying app widgets, they don’t use any text, just the app icon. This is a great way of saving space and preventing the UI from becoming condensed. The onboarding experience is great on the Apple watch, which is expected as the onboarding experience is great on all Apple devices. The primary purpose of the onboarding is to get the watch connected to a iPhone or other Apple device. Overall I really love using my Apple watch, as the user experience feels seemless, just as all their other devices.
Doing this competitor analysis has been very beneficial as I now have a better idea of what other electronic hub apps are like, and also what makes a functional UI and UX for a smartwatch app. This was great as designing for both of these things is something completely new to me, and know I can get started with some sketching. Something I learned from researching these products and UI’s is that it is really important when designing for smartwatches to ensure that there is not too much text or images. Only display what is needed as the users wont be able to see what the text is saying if there is too much and it is too small. This will help the display to not feel clustered, and this can make the user experience more enjoyable. Another thing that I picked up on from this competitor analysis is that all these apps use a black background. This is because whenever the watch is off it will be black, so having a black background gives it consistency to how it looks on someones wrist.