Ambient Interfaces Week 1

The assignment this week reminded me of something I had to do my first day of interaction lab last semester where we noted the indicators and steps that were required to ride the elevator down and up, noting the light the sounds and where and when we push a button. 

I have two smart watches that I alternate between everyday. I use this watch as an alarm in the morning to wake me up with vibrations. I have three alarms set up 15 minutes apart from one another that will cause a set of vibrations every 5 minutes. The first alarm I barely note the vibration on my wrist before realizing it’s an alarm. I then lift my wrist to my eyes so I can snooze it. After the first couple vibrations, I’ll cancel the alarm and the process will repeat with the next alarm.  Somewhere along the way, when I interact with the alarm, I will notice the red dot on the screen letting me know about the notifications. And then I will amble out of bed to get my phone before returning to my pillow. I then check or get rid of these notifications until my next alarm goes off and then I’ll finally get out of bed to get ready. 

In addition to my alarm, I also have notifications that remind me of my next events, like my classes. These are more just a reminder in the case I forget, but on the day to day, these will go off 10 minutes, then 5 minutes before class. I usually dismiss these right away as I tend to be perpetually early to my class since I will get anxious otherwise. If I am on my way to an event but not yet there when it goes off, I will let the event sit on the screen until I arrive. But if I happen to be running late, the notifications help to contribute to my anxiety and make the event seem more urgent. 

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