After doing some market research it is now time to begin brainstorming ways to approach this project, taking my discoveries into account.
In class we were tasked with creating an idea by using alogical connections, using two things that typical don’t associate with one another. I felt I had some issues coming up with something I felt to be sound using this method and ended up pitching an AI powered application. Needless to say I wasn’t quite happy with this idea nor the practice of using alogical connections in this regard. What the alogical connections did offer me was an insight in to how the brainstorming process actually goes. We often look for what isn’t there, our watches don’t have gimmick 1 or gimmick 2 built in so lets manually add them. This led me to thinking backwards, looking at the watch as a watch and to see if there was anyway to improve the watch’s time keeping abilities with all that we can offer digitally. For this I thought of my own life and the times I have been frustrated with watches, clocks or even time as a concept. My girlfriend and I met abroad and had to spend quite some time in a long distance relationship. She was living in Australia at the time so this ment the time difference couldn’t be any greater really, we were living in opposite times of the day. This made communicating even harder as a long distance couple. I felt this could be a really good approach for this project. To explore time through the lens of those connected around the globe but at different times, to see if there is anyway to make these relationships a little but easier.
There are plenty of websites and apps tailored to this market already. Most specialising in experiences that would typically require two people to be together, such as watching a movie or playing a board game. These products aim to remove the need to be together at all. Whilst pertinent I feel that instead of removing the barrier if I can find a way to improve the quality of communication between people it might make the maintenance of the relationship less frustrating. I used many of those watch party apps and I can tell you first hand they aren’t great.
As I had mentioned before I felt working backwards allowed me to remove some of the limitations of the smart watch’s nature and actually opened some doors in terms of creative approaches. I think keep time at the forefront of the product will enable it to be much more suitable than it might otherwise be, if I were to explore shared experiences say. With this in mind I feel a great approach could be found within the time difference of long distance relationships, whether its romantic, familial or even business, it remains valuable to be aware of the other persons time as to not disturb them or contact them at unsuitable times. A way to see and say that you are free seems like an avenue that might be worth exploring. This would allow people to make the most of the little crossover time they might have or ease business relations by not disturbing the other party.
To ensure I was heading in the right direction with this one I wanted to view some trends to see if more people today need to be aware of different timezones than yesterday. In class Kyle suggested we use google trends to discover some of this data. I searched 3 different timezone queries each phrased slightly differently to ensure it wasn’t any kind of bias with how the query was formatted. The results showed a great increase to time zone related searches which is great as it shows there is a need for a product like this.
My idea is to create a smartwatch app that keeps you best connected to your long distance peers and partners through live updates and optimised schedules to make the most of the time you have together. I feel this is a strong idea as all of the competitors that I had analysed seemed to have a great focus on optimisation. It also increases the quality of life for those in this situation by keeping them synced up when possible.