User Experience Design for Smartwatch Games

This research aims at addressing several user experience design challenges while in the process of developing smartwatch games. The challenges were caused by the difficulties of interacting with the tiny smartwatch screen. In this practice-based research project, a smartwatch game prototype was built to explore the answer to the challenges. In this prototype, the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown was used as the main interaction method, in association with some simple touch interaction as a supplement. This interaction method proved to be a more superior way, in terms of precision and screen visibility. This practice-based research consists of a 50 percent creative production and a 50 percent written exegesis. The creative production is a smartwatch game prototype presented as an online interactive mock-up and its screen recording. The written exegesis presented herein includes the literature review, the methodology, the design process and the description of the prototype, and the findings