Comments on: How Wearable Technology Will Impact Web Design

By: Jacqueline Thomas

Jacqueline Thomas — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:59:54 +0000

In reply to Teelah. I know what you mean about needing to get active. My idea of getting active is getting a laptop and sitting somewhere besides my desk. lol

By: Jacqueline Thomas

Jacqueline Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2014 11:37:49 +0000

In reply to Daniel. Hi Daniel, that's a very interesting point you make about web designs being glanceable. It definitely makes sense that wearable technology should be intuitive and instant, something you can glance at, but won't absorb too much of your time.

By: Jacqueline Thomas

Jacqueline Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2014 11:33:56 +0000

In reply to Russ Alman. Hi Russ, you're so right. Technology has advanced so drastically in the last 40 years, from those huge computers that took up an entire room to now, just wearing one on your body. The interesting thing about technology is that it seems to build upon itself. So, the more ideas that circulate, the more people can tweak them and create something mainstream.

By: Jacqueline Thomas

Jacqueline Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2014 11:28:53 +0000

In reply to Susan Fingleton. Hi Susan, that's a very good point! I definitely agree.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 23 May 2014 14:28:21 +0000

I really hope that wearable technology will give web design a boost into a new era. Just “adding another responsive breakpoint” will not do anything good for the user.

The word “Glanceable” (from the Android Wears design principles) is really what to strive for here. How can we design something that can bring a web site’s important information in a glanceable way to the user (e.g. “Do thisawesomeapplestore.com have iPad Air 64gb in stock in their Gothenburg store?”).

I hope wearable applications and operating systems will access information from sites, instead of just presenting a tweaked classic web page experience. In some cases this information is probably not even provided from the site itself, but from other services (e.g. like opening hours can be provided by Google today)

By: Teelah

Teelah — Wed, 21 May 2014 14:09:31 +0000

Haha, I love the term “Wear techies.” One wearable piece of technology that is my favorite is the sleep watch thing, I think its called a Fitbit Flex that keeps track of your activity. As a web designer, I am not very active during the day, so its important that at night I get a good night sleep. I agree with you about preparing for the future, currently we are in the process of getting rid of all tabled designs and moving them to Div’s and trying to get everything responsive. Sounds like we are headed towards the right directions.

By: Russ Alman

Russ Alman — Tue, 20 May 2014 04:36:49 +0000

I remember thinking to myself around 2002, when I first heard on NPR that Steve Jobs was spearheading a project to make a phone with an MP3 player in it, “What in the world are people going to do with this technology?” Boy was I wrong 🙂

You can bet wearable technology will revolutionize the way we communicate and interact in the same way as the iPhone. The race is on to see who makes the first of these devices that goes mainstream. We’re still in the clunky infancy.

I maintain that the biggest drawback to computer technology is the interface. We are still stuck with keyboards and mice. Voice recognition is making progress, but it’s still not 100% reliable and doesn’t work well for visual tasks. Wearable technology like Google Glass (a few generations down the road) will totally change how we interact with technology and remove the hinderances of the traditional point, click and type interface.

It’s just a matter of time.