I'm the happy owner of an Android Wear device, which looks to do pretty much
everything the Apple Watch does (minus the force sensing).  I've been
looking at use cases for this new screen on my wrist, and trying to tune the
notifications I get so they are frequent (it's fun to use this thing!) yet
completely relevant.

I can imagine one very helpful use case for my (very tall) library: call
numbers.  After looking up a material in our catalog or discovery layer, it
would be really nice to be able to push the call number and floor to my
watch, rather than having to pull out my phone or (gods forbid) use a scrap
of paper.  This is small enough information to fit nicely on the screen, and
could be easily accomplished with an SMS or email service to an account
accessible on my phone.  If I needed a more complex triggering system for
whatever reason, IFTTT has an Android Wear channel.

For me, at least, the key is customization.  I want to be able to control
exactly what shows up on this tiny screen.  So, assuming I'm a perfect
sample set of all smart watch users, building custom functionality to
integrate specific channels of information seems like a severe uphill
battle, when I could use IFTTT to parse an email, RSS feed or SMS message.
Developing standards-based data feeds, and recipes for using those feeds
with free and/or open watch apps, seems like best use of time.  Also, since
we're in the Early Adopter phase of innovation diffusion, the exact details
of particular platforms are probably going to change before we hit the
majority.

Cheers,


-Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Michael Schofield
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 2:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Library Services on Small Devices (like Watches):
Discuss

Alright,

I have been pretty excited for small devices and what role libraries can
have in that space, but the Apple Watch seems pretty exciting especially in
terms of added gestures through haptic pressure ("force touch"), obviously
all the geolocational, accelerometer stuff, and of course communicating with
other devices / doors, controlling screens, etc. This doesn't really have to
be about watches specifically, but hey.

For the web, mobile first design really only goes so far as design for a
phone, but as the device landscape gets weirder it makes more sense that
users won't be interacting through a browser [on these devices], rather
interaction with-say-a local library could be contextual and smart.

"I know that you are 100 feet from the library, here are the items available
for pickup."

What do you think would be cool, useful, realistic, etc.?

Michael
libux.co