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Beyond the Pocket: A Large-Scale International Study on User Preferences on Bodily Placements of Commercial Wearables

Joanna Sorysz, Lars Krupp, Dominique Nshimyimana, Meagan B. Loerakker, Bo Zhou, Paul Lukowicz, Jakob Karolus

TL;DR

The paper addresses the lack of large-scale cross-cultural data on bodily placements of commercial wearables by conducting a multilingual online questionnaire with $n=320$ valid responses. It maps how device placement, usage, and timing vary with demographics and context, using a combinatorial Chi-Square analysis over $5655$ IV–DV pairings. The findings reveal significant associations between user attributes and placement patterns, notably a near-exclusive left-wrist smartwatch usage and gender-based differences in smartphone storage locations. The work contributes practical design guidelines and advocates for inclusive, real-world benchmarks to enhance the robustness and generalizability of wearable sensing systems across diverse populations.

Abstract

As wearable technologies continue to evolve-becoming smaller, more powerful, and more deeply embedded in daily life-their integration into diverse user contexts raises critical design challenges. There remains a notable gap in large-scale empirical data on where users actually wear or carry these devices throughout the day, systematically examining user preferences for wearable placement across varied contexts and routines. In this work, we conducted a questionnaire in several countries aimed at capturing real-world habits related to wearable device placement. The results from n = 320 participants reveal how wearable usage patterns shift depending on time of day and context. We propose a set of practical, user-centered guidelines for sensor placement and discuss how they align or diverge from assumptions seen in existing ISWC work. This study contributes to ongoing efforts within the community to design more inclusive, adaptable, and context-aware wearable systems.

Beyond the Pocket: A Large-Scale International Study on User Preferences on Bodily Placements of Commercial Wearables

TL;DR

The paper addresses the lack of large-scale cross-cultural data on bodily placements of commercial wearables by conducting a multilingual online questionnaire with valid responses. It maps how device placement, usage, and timing vary with demographics and context, using a combinatorial Chi-Square analysis over IV–DV pairings. The findings reveal significant associations between user attributes and placement patterns, notably a near-exclusive left-wrist smartwatch usage and gender-based differences in smartphone storage locations. The work contributes practical design guidelines and advocates for inclusive, real-world benchmarks to enhance the robustness and generalizability of wearable sensing systems across diverse populations.

Abstract

As wearable technologies continue to evolve-becoming smaller, more powerful, and more deeply embedded in daily life-their integration into diverse user contexts raises critical design challenges. There remains a notable gap in large-scale empirical data on where users actually wear or carry these devices throughout the day, systematically examining user preferences for wearable placement across varied contexts and routines. In this work, we conducted a questionnaire in several countries aimed at capturing real-world habits related to wearable device placement. The results from n = 320 participants reveal how wearable usage patterns shift depending on time of day and context. We propose a set of practical, user-centered guidelines for sensor placement and discuss how they align or diverge from assumptions seen in existing ISWC work. This study contributes to ongoing efforts within the community to design more inclusive, adaptable, and context-aware wearable systems.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 20 sections, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Methodology
  4. Survey Content
  5. Participants
  6. Analysis
  7. Variable Selection
  8. Combination Generation
  9. Data Preprocessing & Filtering
  10. Statistical Analysis
  11. Findings
  12. Discussion
  13. Design Considerations
  14. Design Consideration 1: No uniform device placement across users
  15. Design Consideration 2: Smartphone availability during sports and throughout the day
  16. ...and 5 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Flowchart depicting the structure and contents of the questionnaire used in the study.
  • Figure 2: Heatmap depicting the amount of occurrences per place in which smartphones are carried depending on the time of day and gender.
  • Figure 3: Heatmap depicting the amount of occurrences per place in which earphones are carried depending on the time of day and gender.