All the paradigms are wrong
… this one might be too, but I can speculate
Glass is a new technology, not in the way the newest smart phones have improved prosessors with more RAM and better cameras, but new in the way we use and interact with it. In how it will be integrated into our lives. In the ways we have to think about it.
In the weeks before actually getting my hands on my own Glass unit, the community was abuzz with crazy ideas for Glassware (the ‘apps’ for Glass). Many of the ideas were springing from the misconception that Glass is a full view augmented reality system, which it is not. Others were simply proposing versions of existing phone or tablet apps, but on Glass. It seemed most of the applications and uses people were coming up with were flying in the face of the four guidelines +Timothy Jordan, Google’s Developer Advocate for Glass, suggested designers and developers adhere to for glass:
Before having tried on Glass, I thought I had a good understanding of what it really meant not to get in the way, to keep things timely, and how to avoid the unexpected. I knew the ‘designing for glass’ part would have to wait until I had a glass unit to play with, but in my naivety, I thought it would be something simple to understand and that I could pick up quickly.
Before you can design for Glass you have to understand what glass is, and the best way to do that is to get one (understandably infeasable for the masses right now). I thought I had a good understanding of the device, having read the articles, watched the videos, read the Mirror API documentation, but when I actually donned the device everything changed. It truly is an immensely personal device, that fades into the background. If the device plays a notification sound, it is literally in your head.
Your first instinct, or at least mine was, upon getting a Glass unit is to install all the apps available, having them update as frequently as possible. I always wanted to be fully ‘in the know’. I was getting news updates from the New York Times, CNN, Twitter, Reddit, and even wrote my own application to show me the top images in imgur every 10 minutes. This was all happening in addition to my emails coming in, messages from friends, phone calls, and even Google Hangouts. For the first day, my head was full of non-stop notifications.
At first it felt wonderful. I would never miss anything again. Soon though, the constant barrage of notifications turned to simple Information Overload. There was too much going on. Too much distracting me. Too much drawing my attention up and to the right. It was defeating the whole purpose of Glass. The whole purpose of Glass is to get technology out of the way; to bring us from being smartphone zombies, back to the land of the living. I turned it all off.
I learned that day that Glass is not a notification system, or a phone accessory; Glass is something different. It seems that Glass is best suited for a different role, something far more passive… ambient maybe. A device that is there when I want it, and gone when I don’t, but never far out of reach.
In the future, I can easily imagine Glass taking on a far more passive and contextually helpful role. Much in the way Google Now is aware of your activities, likes, appointments, packages, favorite teams, google searches, etc, I see Glass becoming Google Now for the actual now. Glass will actively listen to conversations, your surroundings, engadements, and intents while passively presenting contextually relevant information to you when you need it.
Say you’re having coffee with a friend. She mentions an old mutual friend who you can’t seem to recall. Glass heard the name mentioned and is presenting you with a picture of them, how you know them, and the last interaction you had, just to jog your memory.
Later in the conversation, your friend asks if you want to go with her to the showing of that hot new movie saturday. You Glass heard that, and reminds you that you promised to help another friend move this weekend, but then transitions to show you alternate movie times.
After coffee, you are walking back to your office, and pass by a coffee shop playing music. As you are wondering what the song is called, Glass has already looked it up and is showing you on the display.
From my experience with Glass, this is how I see things moving in the future of wearable technology. Moving beyond taking the same paradigms we have now for phones and tables, but instead creating applications that ‘just know’ and take a more passive role in your life. With a device as personal as Glass, it seems only fitting that the apps will also have to make the leap of trust and help us on a personal level.
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