Range Wearable
About
A graduate school project, Range is a watch-like interface designed with a team of students (Pia Zaragoza, Michael Gambale, Josh Begley and Maria Paula Saba) for the 2013 Microsoft Design Expo.
The digital watch displays the relative direction and the distance away in travel time to the people who matter to you. If one of your friends is unavailable to chat or interact (sleeping, driving, important meeting, etc.) they fall off your “radar” as if they were truly out of range. They reappear when they are available to you. Friends who are closer to you in distance appear closer to your center circle. Tapping on your center circle reveals their distance from you in travel time.
The idea was inspired by social media overload coupled with old fashioned friendship bracelets, to feel a relevant connection with the people who matter to you the most, while cutting out what is unnecessary. After talking to various people to test the idea, we received use cases we had not initially thought of:
- Helena, a designer and mother of a young boy said “I’ll be worried when he starts taking public transportation by himself.” A simple wearable like this would give her peace of mind.
- Sean, a bike courier said “I get tons of texts while I’m biking.” He suggested that this watch interface would make it easier for him to filter out only what he needs to know while biking.
- Guga, a psychologist who is an avid snowboarder said “It would be awesome—we could find each other on the mountain without calling.
While friend location finders have become available on smartphones since we worked on this concept in 2013, the simplicity and accessibility of the design as a wearable is still relevant today.