Beyond Touch
Otter Agent!
It is a social game that turns Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor into a playful lie detector, it challenges players to bluff and detect. Join the fun and uncover who’s the best bullshitter in your circle!
The First Social Game on Your Apple Watch
From Concept to Launch: Designing WatchOS & Mobile Experiences
[Overview]
Our team consider the potential demographic, from middle school students to young professionals who often use smart watches for safety and communication purposes. Supported by a Senior Apple Engineer, Dr. Gierad Laput, we turns Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor into a playful lie detector. Feel free to also check out our project website for more details.
[Highlights]
Drove design ideation and aligned key stakeholders
Led design from concept to high-fidelity prototypes as a Product Designer and Co-Producer on a cross-functional six-person team.
Conducted weekly reviews with a Senior Apple Engineer to ensured compliance with Apple’s HIG, and accessibility standards.
Design development and media production:
Improved player retention by 38% through iterative user testing.
Boosted downloads by 19% by editing a commercial video and designing a project website to engage the target audience.
[App Store Launch]
Download our app from App Store
I edited a commercial targeting families and young professionals, introducing our first social game: Otter Agent.
Let users feel like secret agents
Before the mission begins, one agent needs to create a room for others to join. To enhance the feeling of becoming secret agents, I designed the experience to make players feel as if they are actually synchronizing their secret watches. The host receives a mission code, and others agents must scroll to enter the same mission code on their watches to join the same room.
Guest - Enter Code
Guest_Waiting Room
Host_Receive Coder
Assign Identity
Starting the mission, each agent will get their own identity, either a truth teller or a liar.
[01] Ideation
Resersch
Understanding Limitations & Capatibility of an Apple Watch
Researched hardware constraints such as battery life, sensor accuracy, and real-time processing limitations.
Explored unique interaction methods, including haptic feedback, heart rate monitoring, and gesture controls.
Main directions
Smart Watch vs Secret Agents: A theme that drives the storytelling
A smart watch monitoring body status reminds us of spy movies, and we want players to feel like secret agents being monitored by advanced technology, tackling secret missions.
Players take on the role of an otter agent to infiltrate the groundhog family, but the smartwatch invented by the groundhog family will track players’ body status.
Our game provides a series of missions to help players become skilled otter agents.
Four game prototypes leverage various Apple Watch features
We designed four game prototypes that incorporate different hardware features of the watch:
Bluffing game + heart rate
Chasing game + decibel detector
Balancing game + accelerometer
Exercise game + heart rate
Balancing game + accelerometer
Exercise game + heart rate
[02] Playtest
Concept validation through rapid prototyping
Playtest to gather real user feedback
We conducted playtests through the design process, showed designs to stakeholders, and collected feedback.
In the beginning, we playtested different types of games, such as bluffing games, playground games, etc:
Thoughts and Preparation
Lots of people enjoy playing our game druing the playtest day
We showcased our game at the Serious Play Conference
[03] Develop
Key challenges after Playtest
⭕ Small screens limit information
Limited display space
Small tap targets
✅ How I solve it:
Designed larger, well-spaced touch targets
Utilized haptic feedback and audio cues to enhance user interaction
⭕ Edge case
When assigning roles, some players read their roles aloud.
✅ How I solve it:
Added a confirmation check page, requiring players to tap before revealing their assigned identity to prevent accidental disclosure.
⭕ Notifications Are Easy to Miss
Small screen and subtle notifications made in-game prompts easy to miss.
✅ How I solve it:
Introduce sound and haptics during stage changes.
Designed the live voting system - allows audiences to make back-and-forth voting decisions while listening and encourages them to constantly check the speaker's heart rate.
⭕ Limited Personalization on Small Screens
The watch’s small screen limits opportunities for personalization
✅ How I solve it:
Incorporated color variations, so each player’s watch screen is color-coded to match their Otter Agent
[04] Get Buy-ins and Execute Designs
How to get buy-ins
✅ Weekly Meeting with key stakeholders
Regularly reported to instructors and subject matter experts to ensure alignment and keep them informed of the design process and direction.
The expectations for this project were initially quite low. It started as a one-semester, fully experiential project in collaboration with a senior engineer from Apple. On the first day, our instructor emphasized that the goal was purely to explore and learn. But as a team, we were thrilled to discover during testing that users genuinely loved the game we created. Motivated by this feedback, we pitched to the stakeholders for an additional semester and took the initiative to continue development—ultimately pushing the project toward becoming a real product.
✅ Schoolwide Presentations
Huge thanks to everyone who supported me and my team throughout this journey.
✅ Collaborate with Programmers
Worked closely with programmers to ensure design feasibility within Apple Watch’s technical constraints.
Iterated on designs based on engineering feedback.Tested and validated functional prototypes to ensure smooth interaction and user experience.
[05] Product Launch
Marketing
Marketing Video
Land Page
[05] Outcomes
145 downloads
447 sessions
2.56k views
[Key Learnings]