Discussing testing the human experience of wearable devices.

1. A Wearables Story
Testing the Human Experience
A Marathon, a Chip, and a Watch

2. About Us
Gerie Owen
gerie@gerieowen.com
Test Architect, Eversouce
Speaker and Writer on
Testing topics
Experienced Tester, Test
Lead, & Test Architect
Marathon Runner &
Running Coach
Peter Varhol
peter@petervarhol.com
Evangelist, Dynatrace
International speaker on
technology topics
Technology Evangelist and
Writer, Product Manager,
University Professor
Fitness Technology Geek

3. Agenda
What are Wearables?
Examples of Wearables
A Wearables Story
The Human Experience
What is Testing the Human Experience?
Why is it so important?
How do we test it?
Personas
User Value Stories
Discussion and conclusions

4. What ARE Wearabes?

5. Wearables Defined
Electronics that can be worn on the body, either as an accessory or
as part of material used in clothing.
One of the major features of wearable technology is its ability to
connect to the Internet, enabling data to be exchanged between a
network and the device.
Body Computers performing the same computing tasks and
handheld and laptop computers
Often include monitoring and tracking functionality

6. Examples of Wearables
Google Glass
Smartwatches
Bluetooth Headsets (CommBadge)
Sensor-Rich Fabric (HeapSylon)
Baby monitors on a band (Sproutling)
Health and fitness (Fitbit, iFit, Garmin, Microsoft Band)
Pet health and fitness (Whistle)
Hearables (Intel’s BioSport)

7. A Wearables story

8. The Start

9. The Early Miles

10. The Middle Miles

11. Heartbreak Hill

12. “Left on Boylston”

13. The Finish Line

14. What Do All Wearables Have In Common?
A purpose or function
Coupled with human interaction that
Provides value and achieves goals

15. The human experience

16. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
the human interaction
and
and how the value is provided

17. What is Human Experience Testing?
Isn’t testing the human experience actually usability testing?
Testing the human experience differs in
Scope
Depth
Approach

18. What is Human Experience Testing?
Testing in the “real world” of the user;
When and where the device will be used;
How the user and the device will function together.

19. What does testing the Human Experience
involve?
Emotional, physical and sensory reactions
Biases and our mindsets
Social expectations and interactions

20. Why is Human Experience testing so
important?
The closer the device becomes to the
human, the more important “Human” Testing
becomes.
When a networked device is physically attached to us and works with us and
through us, the more important the results of the interaction or collaboration
becomes to us emotionally and physically

21. How do we test the Human Experience?
We Test Types of Human Interaction
Physical
Sensory
Orientation
Geographical
Context
Values

22. How do we test the Human Experience?
Sensory
Touch, sight, sound, smell, taste, sweat

23. How do we test the Human Experience?
Orientation
Human Movement

24. How do we test the Human Experience?
Geographical
Land, water, hills

25. How do we test the Human Experience?
Context
Time of day
Weather

26. How do we test the Human Experience?
Values
Emotions
Mindsets
Biases

27. Human Experience
Test Planning

28. Human Experience Test Planning
Create Personas
Write User Value Stories
Develop Test Scenarios
Based on Personas and User Value Stories
Develop Test Approach
Use the Real World as Your User Interface
Jonathan Kohl

29. Personas

30. Human Experience Test Planning
To test the Human Interaction
Create Personas to understand the humans who will be
using the device

31. What is a Persona?
An archetypal user who represent the needs and motivations of
user groups
Personas represent the motivations, values, expectations and
goals for their interaction with the wearable
There are usually multiple personas associated with a given
wearable
Although they are fictional, they represent real users and require
research for development

32. Benefits of Using Personas
Provides a focus on the personal and contextual requirements, goals
and concerns
Focuses testing on the most important goals of the representative
users
Provides User Experience direction in exploratory testing.

33. What is included in a Persona?
A Name
Family Background
Education
Occupation, Socio-economic status
Physical Size and Condition
Gender
Hopes and Desires
Point of View
Social Affiliations
Values
Expectations

34. Let’s Develop Gerie’s Persona
Distance Runner
Course (roads or trails)
Conscious about health
Likely lifetime sport
Impervious to weather
Age 30+
Member of the Running Community
Group training
Individual achievement
Source of fulfillment
“In It To Win It”

35. Gerie’s Persona
Gerie is a middle aged woman who fancies herself as “aging well”. She boasts
of maintaining the same weight as she was in high school. She was raised in a
middle class household and was not into sports when she was growing up. She
is college-educated, holding two advanced degrees and works full-time at a
professional job.
Although she runs to maintain her physical and emotional health, she is “In it
to Win it”. She would not be considered competitive; however, in small, local
races with limited competition, she often places in her age group. Gerie began
running during college and joined a running club in recent years.
With the support of the group, she achieved one of her three main goals in life:
to run a marathon. After unexpectedly qualifying for the Boston Marathon in
2010, her goal for her 2011 Boston Marathon run was to qualify again.
Although she relies heavily on her sports watch during her run to manage her
pace and heart rate, she depends the device to create a permanent record of
her achievement.

37. User value stories

38. Human Experience Test Planning
To test How the Value is Provided
Create User Value Stories to test the ways
in which the human will achieve value from the device

39. What is a User Value Story?
A scenario describing a realistic situation in which the wearable
technology interacts with the user to provide a benefit.
Based upon how users of the wearable go about their daily lives.
There are multiple stories per persona.

40. How is a User Value Story Developed?
Beginning, middle, and end
Main character is the Persona
Where might this technology help?
Common practices in using the device
 Realistic situations
 Pressures, emotions, weather

41. Types of User Value Stories
• Develop at least three User Value Stories for each Persona:
• Happy Ending: The wearable generates the value desired by the user
• Sad Ending: The wearable fails to deliver the desired value to the user
• Mediocre Ending: The wearable generated value but it didn’t completely
meet the expectations of the user.

42. Examples of User Value Stories
Have you heard any user value stories today?

43. Gerie’s Value Stories: Happy Example
Components
Happy Story: Garmin Watch
Watch catches the Satellite and holds it throughout the race.
Check watch for pace for qualifying and personal record; validating that I can
do this
Check heart rate for reassurance on hills
Stop and Save on the Watch
Qualifying time and Personal Record Recorded
Download watch to hard drive
Upload to Garmin Website

44. Gerie’s User Value Stories: Sad Example
Components
Sad Story: Race Bib
Bib is kept flat and pinned securely
Step on Mat at the Starting Line
Step on each Mat throughout the race so that time and pace registers
Pace/Time data does not register
Validate Results on BAA website
No Record ; Bib failed

45. Conclusions
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
The same can be said about wearables and this is why we must test
the Human Experience