Our team has been busy since the New Year, competing in the AT&T Developer Summit hackathon, which is Noel’s (@noelportugal) Everest, i.e. he tries to climb it every year, see 2013 and 2014.
If you follow our Twitter (@theappslab) or Facebook page, you might have seen the teaser. If not, here it is:
Image courtesy of AT&T Developer Program’s Facebook page
Look for details later this week.
While you wait for that, enjoy these tidbits from our Oracle Applications User Experience colleagues.
Fit for Work: A Team Experience of Wearable Technology
Wearables are a thing, just look at the CES 2015 coverage, so Misha (@mishavaughan) decided to distribute Fitbits among her team to collect impressions.
Good idea, get everyone to use the same device, collect feedback, although it seems unfair, given Ultan (@ultan) is perhaps the fittest person I know. Luckily, this wasn’t a contest of fitness or of most-wrist-worn-gadgets. Rather, the goal was to gather as much anecdotal experience as possible.
Bonus, there’s a screenshot of the Oracle HCM Cloud Employee Wellness prototype.
¡Viva Mexico!
Fresh off a trip to Jolly Old England, the OAUX team will be in Santa Fe, Mexico in late February. Stay tuned for details.
Speaking of, one of our developers in Oracle’s Mexico Development Center, Sarahi Mireles (@sarahimireles) wrote up her impressions and thoughts on the Shape and ShipIt we held in November, en español.
And finally, OAUX and the Oracle College Hire Program
Oracle has long had programs for new hires right out of college. Fun fact, I went through one myself many eons ago.
Anyway, we in OAUX have been graciously invited to speak to these new hires several times now, and this past October, Noel, several other OAUX luminaries and David (@dhaimes) were on a Morning Joe panel titled “Head in the Clouds,” focused loosely around emerging technologies, trends and the impact on our future lives.
Ackshaey Singh (from left to right), DJ Ursal (@djursal), Misha Vaughan (@mishavaughan), Joe Goldberg, Noel Portugal (@noelportugal), and David Haimes (@dhaimes)
Interesting discussion to be sure, and after attending three of these Morning Joe panels now, I’m happy to report that the attendance seems to grow with each iteration, as does the audience interaction.
Good times.
@jake Thanks for shoutout. I think the gauntlet’s now down for other teams to emulate the exercise or take in a new direction … did you find that notebook yet? (cough)
Seriously… it would be interesting for others to try activity trackers and see if any of the personal, team dynamic, or UX considerations are the same, or different.
A personal experience from people of all fitness levels offers great insights and is fun too.
For 2015, I’m looking at the new Fitbit Surge (starting to appear now: https://www.fitbit.com/surge) – as soon as a tangerine color one is available I’m in.
I love the styling and look of the Withings Ox (blue one) too (http://www.withings.com/uk/withings-pulse.html). Heard good things there.
So many trackers, so little arm space…
Ultimately though, I think smartwatches will dent the heck out of the activity band market in 2015. By EOY what will remain as core are smartwatches for the amateur and semi-serious runners, while the hardcore runners and company will continue on with the Garmin Foreruner 620 and Excel Spreadsheets for their own analysis, etc.
MyPOV, natch.
@Ultan: We had our own wearables summit back in January of last year, more investigation than fitness contest though.
Agree w your assessment, although I think the fitness bands are finding a niche at the casual end of the user spectrum, i.e. they’re a cheap entry device.
As the price point has fallen, gyms have started started to carry trackers, and as long as it stays low, fitness bands will find use cases.
For example, the sweaty wrist + fancy smartwatch (Apple Watch) es no bueno use case.
Assume the ecosystems are compatible and the fitness band is a companion to the Watch, which is a companion to the iPhone.
Yeah, stuff for your stuff.
True.
Then there’s that ever-present problem:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/01/10/376166180/forget-wearable-tech-people-really-want-better-batteries
@Ultan: Indeed. Not sexy, but definitely needed by all.