A seamless and integrated digital experience is essential for consumers to maximise the potential of smart wearable health and wellbeing devices, according to new research conducted by Cisco across the EMEA region.
Cisco AppDynamics conducted the study, which surveyed 4,000 people in the UAE, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. It discovered that 83 percent of those polled believe smart wearable technology has the potential to improve individual health and public health services in general.
Wearables are becoming increasingly popular: 38% of people currently use at least one wearable technology device, and 71% intend to increase their use of such products and related applications in the next year. As a result, wearable technology has reached a tipping point in its evolution, transitioning from the early adopter stage to mass adoption.
Wearable healthcare product innovation is accelerating, and users have clear preferences for what they want their devices to do. 84 percent expect their devices to detect early signs of illness, and the same percentage wants to improve their fitness goals. Furthermore, 78 percent expect wearables to aid in the management of chronic health conditions, 79 percent to detect the spread of infectious diseases, and 77 percent to promote healthy eating.
83 percent of consumers believe that having consistent, real-time access to health data, as well as the accuracy of this data, is essential for a positive user experience.
Device crashes (54 percent), slow or unresponsive performance (51 percent), and data privacy concerns are the leading causes of poor digital experiences (51 percent). When it comes to choosing a wearable medical device or application brand, 84 percent of people prioritize trust.
Despite these reservations the overall outlook for such products and services is positive with 79 percent of consumers feeling excited about the potential benefits that wearable technology could bring.
The Cisco AppDynamics research findings are unequivocal. Wearable technology companies must be able to provide consumers with a consistent and dependable digital experience at all times. Failure to do so will result in many users switching to competing products or abandoning the wearable healthcare market entirely.
To avoid this, manufacturers and app developers should use the most up-to-date tools for managing and optimizing performance and availability in a complex IT environment. This includes ensuring that their technologists have access to a single, unified view of IT performance across the IT estate — a concept known as full-stack observability. Furthermore, these wearable technologies must be able to connect to this IT performance data with real-time business metrics in order to quickly identify issues that may negatively impact end-user digital experiences.
