While Satisfaction with These Wearables is High, Consumers Do Not Perceive Value for Money with Current Feature Sets and Performance
Strategy Analytics – A new report from the Strategy Analytics’ UX Strategies (UXS) service, “Smartwatches & Fitness Bands: Prioritization and Satisfaction”, surveyed consumers in China, the US, and the UK to understand feature prioritization and satisfaction with smartwatches and fitness bands. Overall, owners of smartwatches and fitness bands were mostly satisfied with their devices. However, while this indicates that manufacturers are doing many of the right things, Strategy Analytics found that the more technical and physical aspects of smartwatches and fitness bands such as design, style, and battery life, impacted the overall user experience most.
Commented Lisa Cooper, report author and Director, UXS, “Manufacturers need to examine the usefulness of incorporating features such as contactless payments, stress levels and music into smartwatches and fitness bands. We found that these features are not high priorities for users and fundamentally, don’t work well when implemented on these types of wearables. Their use is far more appropriate on a smartphone.”
Continued Cooper , “Battery life also needs to be addressed as it is a high priority for users as well as a necessity for a growing list of health-related features that can be integrated into smartwatches and fitness bands, such as heart monitoring. Currently these measurements are taken on demand which is limited in usefulness for most health issues. A deep dive into other ways of harvesting and storing energy in wearables is key to future success as these types of wearables become health guardians.”
Added Chris Schreiner, Director, UXIP Syndicated Research, “There is a lot of research currently being undertaken in healthcare and fitness wearable sensors that manufacturers can partner with to innovate on current form factors. This combination that would enhance UX factors such as comfort, improve battery life and accuracy. At a time when current smartwatch and fitness band owners already consider value for price to be low, this could be a winning strategy to ensure greater market uptake and consumer satisfaction”
