Wearables on the wrist
Today and tomorrow
My usual bedtime routine: open the Jawbone UP app, see how active I was, and set my alarm for the morning. I asked to be woken up no later than 6 AM, and at 5:53 my UP (realizing I was in the lightest phase of sleep) began to gently vibrate to wake me up. This is a device that’s unobtrusively woven itself into my life. (Disclosure: I was the founder and CEO of Massive Health, a company acquired by Jawbone to further their digital health initiatives like the UP band.)
Everyone’s doing it, and it’s more of the same
It seems like the excitement around wearables couldn’t possibly get any higher. From startups like Misfit Wearables, Basis and Pebble, to consumer electronics giants Samsung, Sony and LG, to old-school GPS navigation companies like Magellan, everyone wants a piece. Indeed veteran Apple watchers have been discussing the “iWatch” for nearly 3 years, looking at every curved glass or small-screen patent as evidence of a device in the works.
Common wisdom #1
Glancing at your wrist is less awkward than looking at a phone
Here’s a scenario I’ve heard often: Someone calls or texts you in the middle of a meeting. It would be rude to look at your phone, but it’s fine to look at your wrist instead.
I’m not sure that’s right, since social norms change. Today, it’s totally acceptable to glance at your phone — briefly — in a meeting. Everyone knows you’re either checking the time, or have a call/text coming in and are deciding if it’s important. It’s a common behavior for all of us, and more importantly it’s obvious what you’re doing: there’s no mistaking that the thing you’re looking at is a phone. On the other hand, I have no idea whether you’ve got a Timex or a Pebble on your wrist, which makes it awkward when you’re “glancing” at it a bit too slowly. Are you eager for this meeting to end or simply reading a text?
Social norms will include glancing at your wrist to see a text message, but they’ve already changed when it comes to glancing at your phone. This isn’t a problem the smartwatch is solving.
Common wisdom #2
Devices need to have a display
So many of the devices out there have a display. Pebble touts the battery life from their e-paper display, while Samsung promotes the vivid, high-resolution display on their Galaxy Gear watch.
The holy grail of displays is one that’s:
- in color
- always on
- high resolution
- got a responsive touchscreen
- clear in bright daylight
- ultra-low/no power
- flexible (resilient) and curved
Companies like eInk and Qualcomm are working on making this wishlist a reality. Right now, however, when “Retina” resolution and vivid colour is the baseline in mobile phones, putting a crummy (by comparison), low-res display on your wrist just feels cheap. More importantly, while there are some wonderful examples of what displays on next-gen wearables might look like (some of my favorites have been designed by my friend Christian Lindholm’s company Korulab), great wearables don’t need a display.
A display-free vision
An example (I’d love for Jawbone to build this into my UP): my display-less Jawbone UP might vibrate with different patterns with notifications from my phone. One quick buzz for a text, a long buzz for a call, two quick buzzes for VIPs, etc. I get the information I need (there’s a notification), unobtrusively (I don’t even need to break eye contact), and can turn my attention to my phone to get the rest. As a guy who puts his phone in his jeans, this would be a nice-to-have. But for my wife, who’s in many meetings, and often has her phone on silent and in her purse, this would be fantastic.
Let’s take it a step further… I’m driving in my car, and my wrist vibrates to tell me there’s a text message. I press the single button that’s on the wristband (or perhaps my steering wheel), and Siri wakes up. “Read me that last text message,” I ask. My eyes never leave the road, and the devices did what they were best at: the band notified me, and the phone did the heavy lifting (processing voice, internet connectivity, in-car integration, etc.). Personally, this feels like a better experience than what today’s smartwatches provide. As a bonus, I can still wear a watch, and choose it for fashion or function, but while my watch might change every day, my Jawbone doesn’t.
Common Wisdom #3
We design to rule them all
Rarely does someone walk into a jewelry store, ask for a watch or bracelet that has a few specific features, make a shortlist of “products”, and then make a purchase from this shortlist. No, we walk in, browse for something that appeals to us, that feels right for us, that jumps out and fits our own style, and we walk out in love with this new artifact.
Three of the leading devices in the consumer wearables space have taken different paths when it comes to fashion:
- Jawbone, Nike, and Misfit Wearables have gone the path of unobtrusive, elegant design, with a little flair (the ridges on the band and the metal cap on the Jawbone, the bright and colorful LEDs in the Nike Fuelband, the brushed surface and subtle lights on the Misfit Shine). Their closest relatives are the rubber bracelets popularized by LiveStrong: they go with anything, add a little highlight but without becoming a centerpiece.
- Fitbit has gone the Timex route: perhaps a bit bland and more masculine, but unobtrusive and doesn’t attract a lot of attention.
As devices get larger, more visible, and more a part of your outfit, the focus will shift away from tech-style feature lists to jewelry design. That’s an opportunity for whoever figures out how to design, manufacture and merchandise beautiful devices. There may never be a Vertu line of smart watches (if you can afford a Vertu phone, you’ll get a Patek Phillipe, etc. watch), but a Vertu-esque line of wearables? That will happen.
Common wisdom #4
The phone just isn’t the “right” place for this information
This is the MetaWatch, and while its display conjures memories of Tamagotchis, the information architecture is beautiful. I can see the time, date, weather, and next meeting at a single glance. The argument, then, goes like this: “it’s really on the wrist where we can best deliver timely information in a glancable way.”
Actually, this is a smartphone lock screen problem: While Apple and Google are making great strides in bringing timely information right to the lock screen, we’re not there yet. With biometric sensors that seamlessly authenticate us when we hold our phones (think TouchID), I expect the next generation of smartphones OS’s to have much more informative lock-screens, further raising the bar for what smart watches must provide.
So, where’s the opportunity?
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here’re some places I think are ripe for innovation and exploration.
If you build hardware: Headless devices that are like jewelry.
If you build software: Building smarter lock screens (i.e. Cover, Yahoo’s Aviate acquisition, Facebook Home, Google Now, iOS Today screen).
If you own (or lease) a fab: Next-gen display technology that enables the form-factors, power consumption and interactivity needed to realize the wearable interface visions designers are dreaming up today.
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