Investigating children’s experiences for smart wearables : implications on design for additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming more widely used to develop consumer products, from functional devices to static artefacts. Nowadays due to the competitive market consumer products go beyond satisfying the users’ needs, by generating meaningful and relevant experiences. This is the scope of User eXperience (UX) design, to create more user-friendly, easy-touse, useful and enjoyable products. Previous literature has emphasised the importance of considering UX design during the development of smart wearables to decrease their rejection rate and achieve more user-adherent wearables. When producing these types of devices, the impact of AM on the user-product interaction is however overlooked. Within this context, this paper presents a study conducted with children to identify what characteristics of AM influence their experience when interacting with smart wearables. The feedback from these users can help depict a clearer understanding of what aspects of both opportunistic and restrictive Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) elements can help achieve a positive UX, which can ultimately increase the acceptance rate and lifespan of the smart wearables. The outcomes obtained are discussed in light of their impact on sub-elements of UX. Additionally, future work is proposed to develop an ontology to aid design engineers during the development of smart wearables for children, adding to the existing body of knowledge of DfAM.