This was a Pre-Conference Workshop that attractive more than 80 participants
Participants had an opportunity to do a hands on exercise—a first for the smartwatch.
It happened as part of the WAN IFRA World News Media Congress in Washington D.C. With more than 80 participants in attendance, the entire 3-hour workshop was devoted to a discussion of smart watches (emphasis on the Apple Watch), and how newsrooms must prepare to carry their brand to what I refer to as the latest platform to join the media quintet.
The workshop was an initiative of the WAN IFRA Global Alliance for Media Innovation, in conjunction with CCI/Stibo Accelarator.
Stephen Fozard, of WAN IFRA, and Kim Svendsen, VP of Marketing for CCI and Director, Stibo Accelerator, organized the workshop.
Highlights:
-While not many of the participants own a smartwatch yet, it was clear that the majority of the newsrooms represented are thinking of doing something about a presence on the smartwatch, although many don’t know what that will be or when.
-The consensus from the various speakers during the workshop is that when it comes to smart watches and news content, less is best. Simplicity will go a long way towards helping users navigate content on the small screen.
—Newspapers and magazines contemplating smart watch editions should think hard about what it is that will make their presence on the new platform unique and distinctive.
—Deniz Ergūrel, of Turkey’s Zaman newspaper, put emphasis on the Apple Watch’s importance in the area of health and fitness and urged journalists to consider this content as vital. See Deniz' presentation here http://www.denizergurel.net/what-apple-watch-offers-for-news-organizations/
—Anders Kring, of Denmark’s Berlingske, spoke about monetization efforts and the smartwatch’s potential to attract advertisers. While The Washington Post seems to be the only one of the newspapers on the watch to carry advertising (sponsored by Infinity automobiles), Anders said that smart watches present great opportunities to monetize these editions.
—Ganesh Ram and Jonas Skytte, student researchers from Aarhus University, presented findings of their study, emphasizing that less is best and that users do not wish to have constant intrusions from their smartwatches. They said that results of their tests reveal that photos are important, but that too many alerts are intrusive. A delicate balance must be maintained. See Research Highlights below
—Brazil’s Eduardo Pellanda and Andrè Pase, academic researchers of PUCRS, presented their work with that other wearable: glasses.
—Tamas Szepvolgvi, of the Czech Republic’s Sanoma Mobile Developmental Centre, devoted his presentation to an analysis of current apps on the Apple Watch, praising the efforts of The New York Times, Bloomberg, and News Republic. Tamas thought that The Huffington Post smartwatch app was too complex. Tamas also likes Instapaper's app for the smartwatch, which reads the news to you.
See Tamas' comments below:
News Republic: The News Republic is a simple customizable watch extension: “Focused – shows the lead only Updated – displays the trending news Customizable – easy to turn on / off categories”
Bloomberg: “The Bloomberg’s watch extension is a great combination of a simple news app and a powerful stock exchange reporter: Simple – it has two views only: news and stock view Relevant – presents the most important information only Powerful – the stock information is tailored in the best possible way”
Huffington Post: “The Huffington Post is the most complex news app currently in the App Store: Deep – it has more than 4 levels of information to dig into Detailed – 3 categories with 10 articles in each Crowded – user drowns into the amount of information”
Flipboard: “The Flipboard is a well-optimized app for the Apple Watch: Updated – it shows the top 10 news only Beautiful – uses images properly Handoff – engages on the wrist, unfolds the story on iPhone”
Instapaper: “The Instapaper is a distinctive news reader app for Apple Watch: News remote – (it transforms and) remote controls the news consumption in audio Unique – instead of reading on the Apple Watch, let the app read the article for you”
Research highlights
The research conducted by Ganesh Ram and Jonas Skytte was based on the participants using the Moto360 smart watch.
After two testing workshops, here are some of the highlights:
—Make it glanceable:
“Glanceable aspects are top priority. Glanceable journalism is all about getting the information you need at a glance. This is essential when it comes to achieve the potentials of presenting news on smart watches.”
—The long of it all?
Long formats are still relevant. While short form and glance able journalism is a top priority when presenting news on smart watches, the long form news articles shouldn’t to be totally eliminated on the smart watches. It actually has its place because sometimes users find themselves wanting to read more on the watches, and then the possibility should be there. If it isn’t users will experience a lack of functionality and a breakdown in the interaction with the smart watch.
—Cultivating that special story:
Follow a story. A feature that makes it possible to follow a specific story that is being shown on thesmart watch. This could be possible to do when a news article is being pushed to the smart watch, thus shown on top of everything else on the screen. Clicking and enabling the feature would then be able to determine what category or specific case that particular article is about, e.g. a story about a local demonstration taking place downtown where things haveescalated forcing the police to take action. The feature would then not only determine the category (e.g. demonstrations), but determine that it is this specific demonstration that one wants to follow and get further updates regarding.
—The Moto360 may be suited for reading more than headlines.
“After the firsthand experience phase, those participants were more open to explore the possibilities of reading articles in full
length on the watch, especially in situations where using a smartphone is not ideal, e.g. when your smartphone is out of reach, your hands are full, you’re driving.”
—Intrusions:
A major concern that all participants could agree on was that the prototype #1 was notifying them with too much irrelevant and uninteresting information demanding their attention. According to several participants, they felt annoyed by the disturbance of the vibration motors in the watch right when the first subjectively irrelevant or uninteresting news article notified the user.
—Not only push, also pull
The elements of pushing the news to the user’s wrist requires a lot of different factors and knowledge about each individual user taken into consideration. Even though it is possible to gain a lot of knowledge, push notifications most likely don’t arrive when the users themselves want to actively read the news. Therefore there is a need for pulling as well, and not only pushing. Pull is about actively accessing and acquiring the news manually, and not getting the articles pushed automatically.
-The practicality of the smart watch:
Using watch instead of smartphone.In a time where there’s an increasing tendency for the average digital user to be “always on(line)” and constantly reachable, the participants felt that the smart watch supported this in a good way. Instead of getting one’s smartphone out from wherever it is, it was much more practical to quickly and easily see a notification when received on the smart watch, and then to determine to dismiss it, act on it, or let it wait for later.
Mario’s takeaways
My own takeaways
1. You must be thinking of how your brand will carry into some type of presence in smart watches.
2. Create a distinctive edition, capitalizing on your publication’s best coverage. Not everything you present on the smart watch needs to be breaking news. Emphasize the element of surprise, as do The New York Times and The Guardian in their current smart watch apps.
3. Use photos, but make sure that they are simple images that do not show too much detail or crowded images. Headshots do well.
4. Use the smart watch edition as a way to keep your brand in front of your audience.
5. Avoid using type over photos. Emphasize legibility, which I personally think is best with black backgrounds and white letters.