Visualizing information on watch faces: A survey with smartwatch users
This work addresses the need to understand current smartwatch visualization practices to inform future research, but it is incremental as it primarily surveys existing usage.
The study surveyed 237 smartwatch users to identify which data types and visualizations are commonly displayed on watch faces, finding that health and fitness data with icons and text is most frequent, and it analyzed online searches to highlight missed visualization opportunities.
People increasingly wear smartwatches that can track a wide variety of data. However, it is currently unknown which data people consume and how it is visualized. To better ground research on smartwatch visualization, it is important to understand the current use of these representation types on smartwatches, and to identify missed visualization opportunities. We present the findings of a survey with 237 smartwatch wearers, and assess the types of data and representations commonly displayed on watch faces. We found a predominant display of health & fitness data, with icons accompanied by text being the most frequent representation type. Combining these results with a further analysis of online searches of watch faces and the data tracked on smartwatches that are not commonly visualized, we discuss opportunities for visualization research.