The iPhone X in the light of Sci-Fi
Every time there is an apple event, or any major tech giant, such as Xiomi, presenting their latest inventions I am astonished how well Science Fiction predicts the future.
With the iPhone X we see a development other manufacturers have been heading towards too. Becoming seamless. This being the integration in your life as well as the product design.
A really interesting read on this topic is the marvelous book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction
I am watching the series The Expanse right now and in the light of the last Apple Keynote the smartphones used in the series struck me as an eloquent example of how the future might deal with things.
The transparency of the display and the phone aside, the UI Elements float outside the screen and give room to an undisturbed view of the content. The same way we see it with recent developments on the smartphone market. When watching the series one notices the use of a combination of gesture and voice control — a trend we see with the latest iPhone reach even further in the mass market.
Even more fascinating is The Expanses simple but clear design decision to answer the question: “But where is the hardware hidden” — well it’s not hidden. It’s right here at the bottom — end of discussion 😅
Where are we headed
One thing is clear and the little black bar ontop of the iPhone Xs screen illustrates this perfectly. We can’t hide all the tech, but will further strive to make devices as immersive as possible. It will be interesting how this will evolve and what the other manufacturers are cooking up in their labs.
