Visualizing information on smartwatch faces: A review and design space
Résumé
We present a systematic review and design space for visualizations on smartwatches and the context in which these visualizations are displayed—smartwatch faces. A smartwatch face is the primary smartwatch screen wearers see when checking the time. Smartwatch faces are small data dashboards that show a variety of data to wearers in a compact form. Yet, smartwatch faces’ usage context and form factor pose unique design challenges for visualizations. In this paper, we conducted an in-depth review and analysis of visualization designs for popular premium smartwatch faces based on their design styles, amount and types of data, as well as visualization styles and encodings they included. From our analysis, we derive a design space to provide an overview of the important considerations for new data displays for smartwatch faces and other small displays. Our design space can also serve as inspiration for design choices and grounding of empirical work on smartwatch visualization design. We end with a research agenda pointing to opportunities in this nascent research direction. Supplemental material from the study is available here: https://osf.io/p3tbj/ .