Insec Apple Watch Interface
Academic Institution | Pratt Institute
Course Title | CDGD 386: Graphic Design Intensive 2
Instructor | Victor Viña
Project Type | Individual Course Project
Date Completed | Spring 2022
Course Title | CDGD 386: Graphic Design Intensive 2
Instructor | Victor Viña
Project Type | Individual Course Project
Date Completed | Spring 2022
Project Overview
Insec is an Apple Watch interface designed for insect-obsessed entomologists who seek a new
way of keeping time that (1) is more enjoyable, (2) assists them in balancing their busy schedules, and (3) helps them focus on their meticulous work.
My challenge for this project was to resign the face of the Apple Watch to change the way time is read following a human-centered design process and to explore the poetries of interaction and envision unique, memorable, and delightful ways of keeping time.
To begin defining the target users of my Apple Watch interface redesign, I made a brain map of users that I would find interesting to develop a watch for. I decided to focus on people with careers related to nature and sustainability, two of my interests.
Next, I created three personas based on my research and selected one to be my target user: Brooke, an entomology student trying to manage her time better. Brooke’s everyday rituals, interests, goals, and pain points guided the development of the watch UX and UI.
Scenario 1: Calmly Keeping Track of Time
Scenario 2: Balancing Life’s Moments
Scenario 3: Busy Bee at Work, Do Not Disturb
Based on my persona, research, and scenarios, I classified the three tasks users would be able to perform on my watch: (1) checking the time, (2) organizing how time is spent with reminders, and (3) controlling notifications.
Next, I designed the information architecture of my interface according to a hierarchy of functionality.
Based on the site map and task analysis, I sketched out wireframes for the placement of UI elements.
After establishing visual guidelines, I rendered high-fidelity mockups.
My illustrations were inspired by images of insect microscope slides, which display a grainy texture and overlapping semi-transparent layers.
Unique Features:
Insec addresses users’ stress from checking the time with a calming sundial display that offers three beautiful insect wallpaper options.
Users can pair Insec with their reminders and schedule app to receive gentle nudges on how to spend their time based on different bee species. For example, when the work day is over, Insec’s reminders display changes from a worker bee species to a group of social honeybees, signaling that it is time to socialize!
Insec helps users to focus on their work with options to easily turn off their notifications and set up a “pollen message.” A pollen message is a “do not disturb” text message that sends automatically when a user is contacted while notifications are turned off.
Lastly, the interface design emulates the view through a microscope, incorporating an experience familiar to entomologists.
