Development of a user experience evaluation framework for wearable devices

Wearable devices such as smartwatch, tracker, and head-mounted display devices are commonly used along with the advance of IT. Users face novel user experiences owing to the “wearing” nature of wearable devices. However, until now there is no framework to assess the overall UX of a wearable device. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide a systematic framework that assist in the evaluation and design of wearable devices. In this study, a framework was presented consisting of design space, evaluation factors, and context of use. It could classify each area into several subcategories based on the previous research. We carried out a case study of expert evaluation and user evaluation to investigate the applicability of the framework. For two types of wearable devices, HMD and smartwatch, the experts evaluated the correlation between the design spaces and the evaluating factors. Users also assessed the association between the two areas through questionnaires. Results showed that relation in between design space and evaluation factors alter by varying products. Although there are limitations on the number of subjects and UX factors, this study has significance in that it enables quick and systematic evaluation of wearable devices.