Two things struck me from the videos that I’ve seen from Google’s promotional videos:

1) The 100% hands off view is not totally accurate, as you’re touching, taping and swiping the side of the Glass often, and 2) the “augmented view” is also not 100% what has been imagined from the movies or other early phone based, or game based augmented reality experiences.

It’s still a great piece of technology, and a precursor to future versions that will only improve. For reference, here’s the first taste we had of Glass:

Project Glass: One day… (20 million views)

Aptly and correctly named “One Day…” this is a vision video, used to sell the idea, get people excited, and explore what the possibilities are.

It then went to this:

How It Feels [through Glass] (19 million views)

Which is widely more accurate, but you can see how it’s changed from an augment reality with your view combined with digital information, to more of a digital assistant like experience. Someone to check quick, short bursts of information and to capture and share your day.

I was not able to try on Google Glass, there were around 5+ people with them to the fully packed, standing room only crowd – but the way I feel like it was described it’s more like a small screen you look up to in the corner of your eye, not something that is overlaid over your vision.

And when Sergey was on the Gavin Newsom Show, you got a close up look, and you can start to see some of the interactions (touching and swiping)

I think many people’s lust for this device could diminish with it’s current price to feature ratio. Looking at Quora – it’s interesting to see what questions arise over the UI and how it will work in real life:

From: What does the actual Google Glass interface look like and how do you control it?

“Right now, there’s a small trackpad on the right side of the glasses, and swiping forward and backward flips between photos in the photos app. The interface is probably not anywhere close to finished, so it very well won’t be in the final release.”

From: What do Google Glass users actually see?

“The screen was fairly small so that I could only see 4-5 items of the list on the screen at a time. Moving my head up and down also caused the list to scroll in a vertical fashion.”

And a recent fastcodesign.com post puts it like this:

“Truth be told, Glass may seem a bit less ambitious, once you break down its UI architecture. But often, restraint takes as much ambition as anything else. Glass needs to aspire to be usable, first and foremost. And that’s exactly what it’s going for.”

And speaking of UI – here’s the most recent video from SXSW:

Building New Experiences with Glass (300k views)

Seeing the above design/developer talk at SXSW – I feel like I finally grasp this first iteration of Glass, and how we’ll be designing for it in the near term.

Sitting in the audience a couple things struck me:

• The experiences are very short – with only one or two commands, and nothing more than a headlines worth of content displayed.
• The “timeline” view reminded me a bit of the Windows 8 interface, where you pan side-to-side.
• The “page curl” metaphor for digging into content was interesting, and intuitive
• The experience is very much branded in the Glass UI. Even something like Path that is heavily designed, has very little styling from the originating app.
• I questioned the “hands-fee” functionality, as I know how well (or not well) things like Google Now or Siri work in a loud, crowded environment. As I mentioned before, lots of tapping and swiping.

Let’s take a look at some of the details from the talk:

It’s all about the timeline – which makes sense, in a Glanceable UI situation, now and the recent past is what matters:

You can then pull functionality out of specific cards (notice the notched corner), and get more around that event or app:

Here’s a close up of a card:

Notice the design of the cards are all branded with the Google Glass UI look and feel. Even something as visually rich and branded as the Path app, takes second to the Glass UI:

Here’s the same type of screen in the Path app:

Here’s a good example of a Google Now card – but within the Google Glass UI:

And here’s the card in Google Now:

And here’s a quick flow for sending a message:

I think Google is positioned well for this world of Glanceable UI where short burst of information will rule much of wearable tech – watches, overlays, glasses, you name it – we need concise, relevant, and timely information available to us – and we’re getting close to that future.

I got my pebble a day before SXSW Interactive. Good timing. It was a snap to setup, and with a single charge I was on my way.

There has been a lot about the “iWatch” recently – from Samsung confirming they’re launching a watch to recent posts around what we’d want out of a “iWatch” to current “smart” watch providers like Sony adding features as fast as they can.

Also, although not totally related, talk about Google Glasses, and how we can interact with our social network, take photos, and read the news without anyone noticing a small flick of the eye.

http://mashable.com/2013/03/17/google-glass-apple-iwatch/

I think the pebble sits in the middle, between augmented wear and accepted technology – and it’s very useful for a set number of scenarios. It’s also is a precursor to what future wearable tech will bring, and how we’ll accept and interact with it.

I was able to attend a design session on how to design for Google glass during SXSW, and I also heard from Astro – the lead of Google[x] the creators of the glass. He talks about what they call “Moonshot Thinking” – and how they shoot for the stars. Glasses is a good product of that thinking. It’s not as practical or as expected as a watch and not really ready for prime time, yet (I’m not alone) . As much as I’m a fan of all new tech, I don’t see glasses taking off in the near term, but I could be wrong. But looking further into the future, it’s yet another view of how we’d work and play in the future – from everything being gesture based (Leap, Kinect), to everything being a screen (Surface, 3M) and built-in tech, like personal screens, augmented projections, or personal gestures (for more on this check out my presentation from last year on Designing for Sensors and the Future of Experiences).

Now back to the pebble.

I like how Kyle Baxter puts it:

Rather than spend long periods of time using it, we will probably use it more as a utility, where we interact with it for some specific task and then go back to whatever we were doing. Instead of finding yourself checking Instagram when you pulled out your phone to look at a notification, you’ll just glance at your wrist, respond to it if it’s important, and go back to whatever you were doing. Instead of holding your phone while following directions to walk somewhere in the city, you’ll just glance at a street name, distance and arrow on your wrist.

I agree wholeheartedly and here’s what I like about the pebble today:

+ Long battery life
It lasted a week of SXSW, with lots of usage and late nights.

+ The right amount of “noise”
Currently with iOS there is a bug that makes it so really you’re only getting texts, iMessages, and calls sent to the watch. I actually like that. I might add twitter DMs, but that’s about it.

+ Simple
You want to backlight to see the time? Shake your wrist. Want to add a watch face? Go to the app on your phone.

+ Low-Power Bluetooth
This works great. It connects right away, and it’s super reliable. I don’t notice a drain on my iPhone battery (which I’ve never really used bluetooth before). How seamless this was sold me on the http://www.automatic.com/ as well.

+ Stylish
I like the way it looks, less geeky than other attempts. I’m actually a watch geek, I have a number of watches, which I switch out – which makes it hard to stick with the pebble. But it’s usefulness overcomes my urges for now.

+ Control your phone
This is a bit of a switch, where your phone controls many things, now you have a controller for your phone (music, etc…)

+ Water Resistance
Had one night of heavy rain in Austin, watch took it like a champ.

What don’t I like?

- Features
I know I have simple listed above, but currently there is little else it does. They’ve just released a SDK for developers, so I’m sure that will change soon.

- What about my other watches?
Again, I like my watches, and if I get hooked on the usefulness of the pebble, what happens to my collection :-/

As you can tell I’m enjoying the pebble, and think it’s a good prototype for what I’m sure Apple will get into at some point.

Now in practice.

If you’re like me you take your phone everywhere. It’s in your pocket, and you feel a buzz. Well that could mean one of 20 different things, new Angry Birds cartoons, Twitter mention, text message, etc… Now if my watch does not buzz as well, I know it’s a “secondary” alert, and if I’m busy it will wait. If I do get a buzz on my wrist, then I can glance and again make the decision if I currently care or not. You don’t have to pull out your phone to check.

If you’re the type that gets into the office and throws your phone on your desk, this works great. I’m impressed with the distance of the bluetooth connection, and I’m pretty sure you’ll stay connected all over the office.

If you have a non-tech set of friends or family, it’s a less-rude way to check what’s going on, and if something important is coming through. I’d be surprised if they notice that glance at your watch.

Some features I’d like ASAP?

• Ability to reply with short, canned messages. How about “Ok, Yes, No, Let me get back to you”.
• Proximity alarms, to remind you not to forget your phone, or that someone has grabbed it.
• The ability to set app level notification alerts (ex: I want to get Twitter DMs, but not retweets).
• Also if it had a headphone jack… But I guess I could also pair a bluetooth headset to it.

Not super imaginative, but that’s what I’d like to see in the near term.

Should you buy? Do you like early, useful tech? Then yes. And oh yeah, it tells time.

While using Android over the past couple of weeks i’ve noticed some things when comparing my top apps to iOS. Both iOS and Android, in different cases, choose different UI elements to do different things. I wanted to catalog some of them here.

Overall I’d say that mainstream Android apps have improved over time, and in many cases (Spotify, Evernote, NPR, and Amazon) I liked the Android versions better. Also with design trends moving to blocky designs and flat colors (like Windows 8) – Android looks more modern in a side-by-side comparison to its iOS counterpart.

If anything this shows that there are very few standard patterns that are used 100% of the time on each OS, but there is risk of confusion from someone expecting one thing – like they have an iPad tablet, but an Android phone – and getting different results when switching between devices.

Take a look at the below side-by-sides (or download/view PDF here), does one OS allow for better apps? Better design? Are some patterns easier to understand? Faster to navigate? Are these built in tandem? Are they built by the same teams?

Slideshare: Android vs iPhone – Differences in UI Patterns and Design

Even with Google’s Android operating system running on 75% of the smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2012 – Android has a usage problem. People are buying them as basic phones because the carriers are giving them away, but even with current low usage, I do agree that as Designers we should be aware of all platforms, and be able to design for them equally. And as passionate, curious individuals, we might learn something new.

Over the holidays I came across this:

A HTC One V, running Android ICS (which is currently the #2 Android OS by usage). It’s locked to Virgin Mobile for cell service, but unlocked as a wi-fi device. And there is no mandatory connection to cell service needed. Just switch it over to Airplane Mode, turn on the wi-fi and GPS, and you’re good to go!

So for $69 (Amazon deal-of-the-day at the time), I got a Android based iPod Touch, that I can play with online and off (as long as there is wi-fi around) – and I’ve been playing with it. I’m trying to replace my iPhone while at home, and I have to say it does a good job. Most of the apps I regularly use are available (I think I’m only missing Byline for RSS, and of course FaceTime), the OS is fast enough, and there are some interesting design details that I would like to see on my iPhone.

• This is a great way to get-to-know a device, and learn its advantages and quirks.
• And as a father of mobile device loving kids, this could also be a great replacement for an iPod Touch, at a fraction of the cost, and if it lasts – it could one day be a pay-as-you-go phone for your kiddo.
• It also makes a great kiddo-camera – with easy ways to upload your photos straight from the camera.

So as pay-as-you go devices get down to second device level prices, now’s the time to take the plunge, and try to see if you can replace your device for part of your day. Do it for the love of Design.

Here are some current pay-as-you go deals to get you into a different Mobile OS:

$100 HTC One V (4.0 ICS)

$199 Nokia Lumia 710 (Windows Phone)

$70 LG Optimus Slider (2.3 Gingerbread)

$100 LG Optimus Elite (2.3 Gingerbread)

$169 Samsung Exhibit II (2.3 Gingerbread)

$99 Samsung Illusion (2.3 Gingerbread)

How can you determine if something is worth building? Recently at the Warm Gun Conference Instagram founder Mike Krieger talked about what they called “The Wizard Of Oz Techniques For Social Prototyping” – what I’ve heard called “404 Testing” – where he said:

Krieger says him and Systrom tested an early version of a feature which would notify you when friends joined the service. Instead of building it out, they manually sent people notifications “like a human bot” saying ‘your friend has joined.’ It turned out not to be useful. “We wrote zero lines of Python, so we had zero lines to throw away.”

What could be a better way to find out if something was truly valuable to your customers – then to fake it. There are a couple stories, one dating back to early computing days when a company wanted to see if they could get admins to use voice dictation software. At the time, this was a very expensive project, with huge technology hurdles. Before starting to invest in this project, they decided to run a test. They installed a “working” prototype into an office, only it wasn’t real. While the admins talked, someone was listening and typing back what they said.

After some testing they found that the admins didn’t like the product, that it was taking away from their tasks, and they preferred other methods for input. This would have been a multi-million dollar project, that most likely would have flopped. They spent almost nothing to find out this product had very little value to their target market.

I’ve thought about how this could work for smaller feature sets – and then came across this:

It’s from a new travel site called: http://www.mrarlo.com/

While at first you could be thinking “lame, why not just add a under construction gif to the page?” – but if they’re tracking the clicks for this – they’ll quickly determine what % of visitors would be interested in the feature, and is it worth the investment to build out.

When asking customers if they would like feature A or B, they’ll usually say “how about both?” – to them features are free. They don’t know the development that goes into something as seemly simple as “neighborhood” for instance.

404 testing is a great method for finding value, from a single feature to an entire product. Remember, development is expensive and will keep you from delivering features your customers really want.

Today’s Dallas Digital Summit started with Alexis Ohanian (reddit and hipmunk fame) talking about how the internet is changing everything. And in his talks he touched on some aspects of product development – things like shipping, getting a MVP product out the door, and making sure customers find value in what you’re creating.

It’s good to get a startup vibe to start off the day – and I’m really passionate about bringing this vibe to other organizations. I think as User Experience Designers we’re in the right place to help change organizations – so it makes sense that things like the Lean UX mirrors elements of the Lean Startup movement and Agile Development.

So lets make things, great things, well designed things – build/measure/test – and may you ship as often as possible.

Here’s my presentation from today’s UX session @ Dallas Digital Summit:

#DDSUM12

Tomorrow I will be speaking at the Dallas Digital Summit in the User Experience & Design track @ 4:10.

The tickets are currently sold out, but if you’re there be sure to say hello! And if you’re not, you can follow along #DDSum12.

I’m wondering what has changed? I can view more, faster? Not as timid about watching streaming videos on the go? Whatever it is, I’d be surprised as iPhone 5 usage goes up, the LTE network doesn’t start to drag. Guess we’ll see how it fares in Austin during SXSW next year

This year at Big Design I spoke about Designing for Sensors 
& the Future of Experiences. This is something that’s near and dear to my heart as we move forward into an exciting time as Designers.

For years we only had the screen to play with, a keyboard, then eventually the mouse. But as technology tends to move faster and faster – we now have touch in every shape and size, sensors to detect our every movement, and new ways just over the horizon to interact with the world around us. And where wireframes and mockups have served us well – we need to be prepared for a very different future. As designers we own this.

Thanks to Big Design, they’ve posted the video from my talk:

And I have the slides posted on slideshare:

I’m a little behind on this, but it’s always interesting to look back. In 2011 I gave a talk to a couple local groups and at the Big Design Conference on Gamification. We were hot off the heals of SXSW, where we had a great many talks, startups, and guests from the gaming world. But after more than a year, it’s still gaining ground, and we’ve yet to see the hockey stick growth in adoption – but I think it’s still coming.

While it’s still slowly seeping into commerce, entertainment, and learning – learn all you can, enjoy!

View on blip.tv

And you can view/download the presentation here