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| Why wearables' success depends on being like Yo | Why wearables' success depends on being like Yo |
| (1 day later) | |
| The attractions of Yo, the app which does nothing more than send a notification saying "Yo" to its target, aren't immediately obvious. Nor is its connection with the future of wearables. But it exists. | The attractions of Yo, the app which does nothing more than send a notification saying "Yo" to its target, aren't immediately obvious. Nor is its connection with the future of wearables. But it exists. |
| Yo has rapidly become useful within the Guardian's technology team: we're so often doing other things than looking at the particular computer screen where a message from a colleague might arrive, we need some method of prodding people to look at that particular screen. Yo fills that gap. It's not an email which might get ignored. It's not a text message that might take unknown time to arrive. It's not a public tweet. It's not a Twitter direct message that might go unnoticed. It's a person-to-person, personal, private, nudge. | Yo has rapidly become useful within the Guardian's technology team: we're so often doing other things than looking at the particular computer screen where a message from a colleague might arrive, we need some method of prodding people to look at that particular screen. Yo fills that gap. It's not an email which might get ignored. It's not a text message that might take unknown time to arrive. It's not a public tweet. It's not a Twitter direct message that might go unnoticed. It's a person-to-person, personal, private, nudge. |
| And it's nothing more than that. Yet it doesn't have to be any more than that to be useful. Usefulness is the best metric for the survival of a technology - not its capability, or even necessarily its convenience (though we tend to roll downhill towards, rather than away from, more convenience). | And it's nothing more than that. Yet it doesn't have to be any more than that to be useful. Usefulness is the best metric for the survival of a technology - not its capability, or even necessarily its convenience (though we tend to roll downhill towards, rather than away from, more convenience). |
| Yo, mama | Yo, mama |
| Yo is easy, quick, simple, unambiguous. By contrast, a lot of the wearable devices that we've been seeing lately have been complex, physically fiddly and overreaching. This thought struck me particularly as I watched the presenter (the one who wasn't telling us how wearables are about fashion while wearing jeans and a hoodie – that one) demonstrating how he could control his Android TV from across the room using his smartwatch. Watching the painful care with which he made sure not to mis-swipe and order a pizza instead was agonising. | Yo is easy, quick, simple, unambiguous. By contrast, a lot of the wearable devices that we've been seeing lately have been complex, physically fiddly and overreaching. This thought struck me particularly as I watched the presenter (the one who wasn't telling us how wearables are about fashion while wearing jeans and a hoodie – that one) demonstrating how he could control his Android TV from across the room using his smartwatch. Watching the painful care with which he made sure not to mis-swipe and order a pizza instead was agonising. |
| Google's aims with wearables are clear: get Android everywhere. It completely makes sense that the major assault would begin with watches (given that Google Glass, introduced with skydivers two years ago, is very much in the down phase of the hype cycle). Watches are worn; they can be quite big (offering room for a battery); they display information. You can even finagle a touchscreen onto them - and touchscreens are everywhere, aren't they? | Google's aims with wearables are clear: get Android everywhere. It completely makes sense that the major assault would begin with watches (given that Google Glass, introduced with skydivers two years ago, is very much in the down phase of the hype cycle). Watches are worn; they can be quite big (offering room for a battery); they display information. You can even finagle a touchscreen onto them - and touchscreens are everywhere, aren't they? |
| This leads to the situation where LG and Samsung are offering us smartwatches that will last an entire day on a single charge. Wow! And that for a device which costs only £159 (for the LG device) - that is, as much as a growing number of smartphones. While needing a smartphone. And being operated only by touch input. And being the size of a small TV. | This leads to the situation where LG and Samsung are offering us smartwatches that will last an entire day on a single charge. Wow! And that for a device which costs only £159 (for the LG device) - that is, as much as a growing number of smartphones. While needing a smartphone. And being operated only by touch input. And being the size of a small TV. |
| The latter point (and quite a few of the former ones) are why smartwatches, at least in this generation, don't have a hope of interesting around 50% of the population - women. Shara Tibken of Cnet made the point with a single image from Google I/O, where LG smartwatches were given away to attendees: | The latter point (and quite a few of the former ones) are why smartwatches, at least in this generation, don't have a hope of interesting around 50% of the population - women. Shara Tibken of Cnet made the point with a single image from Google I/O, where LG smartwatches were given away to attendees: |
| This the the LG G Watch next to the actual watch I wear every day. Pretty big difference. #io14 pic.twitter.com/dszy9JeXj9 | This the the LG G Watch next to the actual watch I wear every day. Pretty big difference. #io14 pic.twitter.com/dszy9JeXj9 |
| (Hers is on the right, if it wasn't obvious.) The potential audience for watches is already quite small; hulking designs like this LG's don't help. Nor do I think that the Moto 360 will pass this test. It has a round face, but the picture of its hulking form on Joanna Stern's wrist in the Wall Street Journal tells you everything you need to know. | (Hers is on the right, if it wasn't obvious.) The potential audience for watches is already quite small; hulking designs like this LG's don't help. Nor do I think that the Moto 360 will pass this test. It has a round face, but the picture of its hulking form on Joanna Stern's wrist in the Wall Street Journal tells you everything you need to know. |
| Distaff attraction | Distaff attraction |
| Yet if you're going to appeal to women as well as men, what do you need? You have to rethink what the wearable is about. | Yet if you're going to appeal to women as well as men, what do you need? You have to rethink what the wearable is about. |
| I think the idea of using your watch to control things is overdone. It's too easy to miscue on a tiny touch screen; and if the screen gets too big, you're off overboard into the waters of "women will never buy it". True, you can have buttons on the front or side which provide the control function - but in that case, ditch the touchscreen, which anyway only sucks up battery power. Having owned a Pebble watch for more than a year*, which has four buttons and a non-touch screen, I can honestly say I've never used the buttons for anything except changing settings - even though in theory I could use it to refuse calls on my Bluetooth-connected phone and control the music playing on it. I'm not that involved with my smartwatch. | I think the idea of using your watch to control things is overdone. It's too easy to miscue on a tiny touch screen; and if the screen gets too big, you're off overboard into the waters of "women will never buy it". True, you can have buttons on the front or side which provide the control function - but in that case, ditch the touchscreen, which anyway only sucks up battery power. Having owned a Pebble watch for more than a year*, which has four buttons and a non-touch screen, I can honestly say I've never used the buttons for anything except changing settings - even though in theory I could use it to refuse calls on my Bluetooth-connected phone and control the music playing on it. I'm not that involved with my smartwatch. |
| Mostly it tells the time. Occasionally it tells me that someone's calling my phone - which if I'm away from my phone, or have it on silent, is a big benefit. Oh, and the battery? Typically it lasts five days - which is mostly because of its non-touch e-ink screen. | Mostly it tells the time. Occasionally it tells me that someone's calling my phone - which if I'm away from my phone, or have it on silent, is a big benefit. Oh, and the battery? Typically it lasts five days - which is mostly because of its non-touch e-ink screen. |
| In passing, I've met three senior Apple executives in the past 12 months - of whom the first two expressed interest in my Pebble, asking my experiences. One had even bought one - in orange. (He wasn't wearing it.) I suspect Pebble's hits, and misses, have informed whatever Apple is doing in this space with the fabled "iWatch". | In passing, I've met three senior Apple executives in the past 12 months - of whom the first two expressed interest in my Pebble, asking my experiences. One had even bought one - in orange. (He wasn't wearing it.) I suspect Pebble's hits, and misses, have informed whatever Apple is doing in this space with the fabled "iWatch". |
| Active notification | Active notification |
| No; wearables, if they're going to be actively useful (rather than passively measuring details about you such as the famous "steps taken", heartbeat or blood pressure) need to be about notification. | No; wearables, if they're going to be actively useful (rather than passively measuring details about you such as the famous "steps taken", heartbeat or blood pressure) need to be about notification. |
| But how should that be done? The whole idea of vibrating alerts - borrowed from smartphones, which got them from games controllers - feels clunky. I much prefer the ideas being put forward by Christina Mercando. | But how should that be done? The whole idea of vibrating alerts - borrowed from smartphones, which got them from games controllers - feels clunky. I much prefer the ideas being put forward by Christina Mercando. |
| Christina who? She's the brains behind Ringly - a ring (wearable!) with 18-carat gold plating, precious and semi-precious stones; you can set four different kinds of vibration, and five different lights (which glow through the gem). "Our core belief is that technology can be more discreetly integrated into our lives," says Mercando in an FAQ. "Ringly places style and simplicity above all else, and our first product line is a collection of rings." | |
| Battery life? She reckons two or more days, and it charges (wirelessly) in its ringbox. If she can get it together, I think Ringly could be a hit with women who want a wearable notification system; if Mercando can develop a line that's more, well, rugged then I think she could interest men too. The idea of using light colours for notifications is obvious enough; the idea of a ring is smart. (Here's Craig Hockenberry wondering if the iWatch could be a ring in March 2014.) And yet the simplicity of a ring that occurred to Mercando (and Hockenberry) has eluded scores of designers - even Google's - in favour of the touchscreen paradigm that has been with us for seven, or ten, or 20 years. | Battery life? She reckons two or more days, and it charges (wirelessly) in its ringbox. If she can get it together, I think Ringly could be a hit with women who want a wearable notification system; if Mercando can develop a line that's more, well, rugged then I think she could interest men too. The idea of using light colours for notifications is obvious enough; the idea of a ring is smart. (Here's Craig Hockenberry wondering if the iWatch could be a ring in March 2014.) And yet the simplicity of a ring that occurred to Mercando (and Hockenberry) has eluded scores of designers - even Google's - in favour of the touchscreen paradigm that has been with us for seven, or ten, or 20 years. |
| Being able to see the new only in terms of the old is what prevents people developing the new. Wearables don't need more complexity; they need more simplicity. They don't need the old idea of touchscreens; they need a new idea of what "notification" means. They don't need to be obvious; they need to be unobtrusive. They don't need to be bulky; they need to be light. | Being able to see the new only in terms of the old is what prevents people developing the new. Wearables don't need more complexity; they need more simplicity. They don't need the old idea of touchscreens; they need a new idea of what "notification" means. They don't need to be obvious; they need to be unobtrusive. They don't need to be bulky; they need to be light. |
| In short, they need to be Yo. Ten years ago, when Facebook was starting and blogs ruled the world, it was "obvious" that you needed a big canvas to write on. When Twitter arrived and only allowed 140 characters, people called it "microblogging" - for want of a better word - but questioned how you could say anything useful in such a short space. | In short, they need to be Yo. Ten years ago, when Facebook was starting and blogs ruled the world, it was "obvious" that you needed a big canvas to write on. When Twitter arrived and only allowed 140 characters, people called it "microblogging" - for want of a better word - but questioned how you could say anything useful in such a short space. |
| Well, that's not a debate with any legs now. And so, Yo: one bit of data to one person. Wearables need to make that transition too. After all, if you need to change the channel on your TV using your watch, it's probably just time to find your remote. | Well, that's not a debate with any legs now. And so, Yo: one bit of data to one person. Wearables need to make that transition too. After all, if you need to change the channel on your TV using your watch, it's probably just time to find your remote. |
| • Apple's first smartwatch draws closer to mass production | • Apple's first smartwatch draws closer to mass production |
| * Sorry, hedgecreep. Looks like yours is the melted foot spa sandwich. | * Sorry, hedgecreep. Looks like yours is the melted foot spa sandwich. |