WaterJewel
Jutta Fortmann, Vanessa Cobus, Wilko Heuten, Susanne Boll · 2014
A recent study revealed that every fourth German adult drinks less than 1.5 litres a day. Insufficient fluid intake can cause headache, lack of energy and lightheadedness. Signals can be used to be reminded of drinking. However, these are often missed or even deactivated because they are too obvious. On the basis of a participatory design study, we designed the fashionable light bracelet WaterJewel as an awareness display and an unobtrusive reminder for a regular fluid intake. In a four-week 12-participant study, we explored the use of WaterJewel in daily life and how it compared to a prevalent mobile drinking reminder application. Our results show that with WaterJewel participants drank more in total, more often accomplished the daily drinking goal of 2 litres, drank more regularly, and drank more often prior to the reminder event than with the mobile application. Participants rated WaterJewel as very usable and appreciated its practical and discreet design.