Forums
To begin my user research I decide to use a little tip from Daniel and look at different forum pages to see what normal people are saying about a product/topic. By doing this it allows me to see what products my potential users are using, what lifestyles they have or what features they are looking for.
After trawling through endless forums about smartwatches and children I noticed a common pattern; most forum discussions were people asking where they can get a smartwatch/wearable to monitor their children while also custom produced to children. Many people seemed confused on what product to get which gives me further evidence that there is a huge untapped market in this area. Additionally, the majority of people commenting on the forum were parents/guardians.
Surveys
I decided to use Google Forms to conduct a short survey about ‘parents, kids and smartwatches’. This was to look at user behavior and gain critical feedback for my pitch. Additionally, this feedback allows me to make across-the-board predictions of my user group. Fortunately, my sister works for Sure Start which involves working with parents and disadvantaged kids. So I got her to hand out my form via WhatsApp.
The Questions
When selecting my questions on this sensitive subject, I just didn’t want to go straight into the more sensitive ones, instead, I have constructed my survey to gradually build up to more sensitive ones.
- How old are your children?
- Does your child suffer from any health defects?
- Would you consider buying a smartwatch for your child to monitor their safety/health?
- Would you be more confident with your child being outside using a smartwatch/tracker?
- What is the amount you would pay for a smartwatch for your child?
- From the options below, what feature would you love your kid’s smartwatch to emphasize?
In this survey, all questions are as important as each other so I can properly build a profile of my user.
Looking at the Feedback
Looking at the feedback we can see that 83 percent of candidates are within my intended age range (5-10) which is no surprise as this is the age group my sister works with. However, looking at health defects we can see 16 percent suffer contain a condition. This shows that there is a small yet noticeable percentage of children who suffer from health-related conditions.
The third and fourth questions ask the participant about their trust in smartwatches. I was happy to see that more than 80 percent of candidates were interested in buying smartwatches to protect their children. However, to my surprise, 25 percent of people said they wouldn’t be confident with using a smartwatch.
This question interested me the most as 66 percent would spend £20 – £30 for a smartwatch for their child while over 30 percent would pay more than £40 – £120. This shows the potential market the kid’s smartwatch industry has.
Finally, most people picked either gaming or health as I suspected. With 83 percent picking health. This additionally shows the attitudes of my user group and reinforces the belief that health/safety is a large part in wanting a smartwatch.
User Persona’s
From the research I have conducted previously, I decided to create two user personas for my user group. This includes 8-year-old Kyle (product wearer) and 38-year-old Patricia (Mother)
Empathy Map
Furthermore, I decided to create an empathy map showing Patricia’s actions when buying a competitor’s smartwatch for her child.
It is divided into 4 categories:
Says (Top left)
Thinks (Top Right)
Does (Bottom Left)
Feels (Bottom Right)
Overall, I felt like I have captured the perfect user for my product through forums, surveys, competitor reviews, etc. Conducting all these tasks such as the user persona & empathy map has allowed me to captivate and categorize my users in greater detail which ultimately defines and shapes a more user-centered product.