Xocchiali AR glasses - Design, implementation and usability testing of simple AR glasses

Abstract

This thesis focuses on designing and prototyping a companion application for Xocchiali's AR glasses which are to be stylish, unobtrusive and cheap smart glasses designed to be used on a daily basis. The main goal was to create a user-friendly application that helps configure the glasses for everyday use. Additional goal was to explore possibility of implementing designed features on a microcontroller that is to be used in the glasses. Key research focus on suitable use cases for simple smart glasses and effective mobile application design. The thesis presents low and high fidelity prototypes of the companion iOS application that guides the user and allows him to configure the glasses. In order to evaluate the usability of the high fidelity prototype, a study was conducted. Results suggest that developed design appeals to the users and is easily understandable, allowing for seamless and satisfying configuration of the glasses. The authors conclude that both the prototype as well as microcontroller application proof of concept could used as a good foundation for the actual, final product.

Popular Abstract

Imagine a world where your glasses not only correct your vision but also enhance your daily experiences. That's exactly what Xocchiali's AR glasses aim to achieve: stylish, affordable smart glasses for everyday use. In this thesis, we dived into the exciting journey of designing and prototyping a companion application that makes configuring these futuristic glasses a breeze. Our primary goal was to create a user-friendly app that allows effortless customization of the glasses to suit individual preferences. Apart from that, we programmed the heart of the glasses - a Qualcomm microcontroller (kind of like a mini-computer). In the future, the app and this microcontroller will work in unison but we focused on the application itself.

First of all, we came up with several ideas about what the application should do. In the end, we decided that the app should focus on the following two things: configuring what the glasses do when a notification on the phone appears and configuring what the button on the glasses does. With that in mind we proceeded to create a low fidelity (lo-fi) prototype - in our case it took the form of sketches on paper. The prototypes are very important in the design process as they allow us to quickly and cheaply check whether the ideas we come up with are good. We made two prototypes and tested them on a few users - both had pros and cons and so we took the good parts and proceeded to high fidelity (hi-fi) prototype. At this point, we started to focus more and more on the user interface - the colors, where buttons are placed, what texts are shown etc. This process was done in small portions called iterations - each iteration consisted of discussing the progress, potential problems and plans for the next iteration. As a result, we ended up with an application for iOS. We used that to conduct the usability study, that is we invited 10 users to go through our application - the goal of that was to find whether what we had done was perceived as user-friendly, easy to understand and good looking. In order to measure that, we prepared some questionnaires as well as asked some questions to understand how the users think when using our application.

What we found out is that the application is actually not bad! There are some things that some of the test subjects struggled with, e.g. drag and drop gesture in some parts of the application but overall each of the users successfully completed our test and rated the application favorably. All in all, we think that the product has a great potential to make it big and our work will contribute to its development.

• author: Królczyk, Aleksy and Korytowski, Adam
• supervisor: Mattias Wallergård
• organization: Department of Design Sciences
• course: MAMM15 20231
• year: 2023
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: glasses, wearables, design, usability, testing, virtual reality, augmented reality, VR, AR
• language: English
• id: 9128381
• date added to LUP: 2024-03-28 08:46:57
• date last changed: 2024-03-28 08:46:57