User Experience Testing Through The Development Of An Apple Watch App

Apple, creator of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers, recently developed a new piece of technology, the Apple Watch. When it was originally released in April of 2015, reviewers called the device a luxury item, having no practical, everyday use associated with them. In June of 2015, Apple announced WatchOS 2, an update to the Apple Watch’s operating system, and with it, they also announced many new programming resources, allowing software developers to access more of the watch’s hardware. If these new resources are utilized properly, the watch can become a practical machine and rid itself of its “luxury item” connotation. The goal of this research was to explore the newly released Apple Watch programming resources in order to create an app that would give people a reason to use the device on an everyday basis. One of the main features explored was the watch’s heart rate sensor, and it was eventually incorporated to create a health app, programmed in Swift, that would motivate users to exercise and regulate their heart rate. Having an abnormal heart rate can lead to future heart diseases, so an app that monitors health helps make the Apple Watch more of a utility. In order to predict this measure of success, the theory of Diffusion of Technology and the Technology Acceptance Model were considered while creating the app. From this, an app that has the potential to positively impact the Apple Watch market was developed