Designing wearable device-based product and service ecosystem

Abstract

In the design of wearable device, the focus is normally put on the device itself and functions serving individual users. However, as a product widely spread out over a large population, the consolidated data collected from the devices could be used to bring to users functions or services far beyond personal scope and increase the value of services for individual users as well. When the focus of design is switched from individual product to the overall landscape involving large amount of devices, a central data platform, and services supported by the data platform, a systematic planning of the working mechanism and services at both individual and social level become possible as the result of the scope expansion. We introduce in this paper our in-depth analysis of key issues involved in the design in this new type of ecosystem. Specifically, we use E-Wearable, a wearable device-based platform for environment protection and environmental information service to exemplify the concepts and methods we propose.