I'm the happy owner of an Android Wear device, which looks to do pretty much everything the Apple Watch does (minus the force sensing). I've been looking at use cases for this new screen on my wrist, and trying to tune the notifications I get so they are frequent (it's fun to use this thing!) yet completely relevant.
I can imagine one very helpful use case for my (very tall) library: call numbers. After looking up a material in our catalog or discovery layer, it would be really nice to be able to push the call number and floor to my watch, rather than having to pull out my phone or (gods forbid) use a scrap of paper. This is small enough information to fit nicely on the screen, and could be easily accomplished with an SMS or email service to an account accessible on my phone. If I needed a more complex triggering system for whatever reason, IFTTT has an Android Wear channel. For me, at least, the key is customization. I want to be able to control exactly what shows up on this tiny screen. So, assuming I'm a perfect sample set of all smart watch users, building custom functionality to integrate specific channels of information seems like a severe uphill battle, when I could use IFTTT to parse an email, RSS feed or SMS message. Developing standards-based data feeds, and recipes for using those feeds with free and/or open watch apps, seems like best use of time. Also, since we're in the Early Adopter phase of innovation diffusion, the exact details of particular platforms are probably going to change before we hit the majority. Cheers, -Ian -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael Schofield Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 2:40 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Library Services on Small Devices (like Watches): Discuss Alright, I have been pretty excited for small devices and what role libraries can have in that space, but the Apple Watch seems pretty exciting especially in terms of added gestures through haptic pressure ("force touch"), obviously all the geolocational, accelerometer stuff, and of course communicating with other devices / doors, controlling screens, etc. This doesn't really have to be about watches specifically, but hey. For the web, mobile first design really only goes so far as design for a phone, but as the device landscape gets weirder it makes more sense that users won't be interacting through a browser [on these devices], rather interaction with-say-a local library could be contextual and smart. "I know that you are 100 feet from the library, here are the items available for pickup." What do you think would be cool, useful, realistic, etc.? Michael libux.co
