User Perception of Wearables in Everyday Learning Contexts: The Impact of Prior Device Experience

Wearable devices are ubiquitous technology, which is attached to the user itself, allowing it to be available in various everyday life settings. With the growing popularity and increasing affordability of smart wearables devices, their uses are also growing. Traditionally wearables have been used for health and fitness tracking, but now wearable are used for various educational purposes as well. Wearable devices can take the form of daily use accessories like a watch, glasses, clip, necklace, etc. The abundance of form factors brings the question of what preferences people have for these form factors and how prior experience shapes these preferences. In this paper, we explore peoples’ attitudes towards different wearable form factors and their preferences of wearable form factors in an everyday learning context. We conducted a survey-based study to find differences between users with and without prior experience with wearable devices. This study will help designers understand why certain wearable devices are preferred and the role of prior experience. In the survey, nine different fictional scenarios of daily life were presented, and participants were asked to imagine themselves using a wearable for learning in those scenarios. Results show a significant relationship between users’ prior device experience and which form factor of wearable device they prefer to use for learning. Also, participants with prior experience with fitness trackers rated the social influence of wearable devices significantly lower compared to participants without wearable experience.