As an LX designer I keep thinking about the relationship between people and tools. It’s always been so polite, really. I’m over here and you’re over there. I am in my personal space. I have control over it and it is defined by me. Or at least it used to be.
With wearables, implantables, and augmented reality, let’s just say the concepts of personal space are no longer the same. You can set up your Slack groups to notify you. You can get alerts from any number of apps … texts and pings keep rolling in. The edge of your phone talks to you. I think I’ve gotten about five alerts since I’ve written this paragraph! It’s all good—we are used to it, but it’s about to get a lot cooler. And weirder. TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Global Mobile AR (Augmented Reality) market to grow at a CAGR of 96.52 percent between 2014 and 2019. Whoa. Wearables? By 2018, it is estimated that this market will be worth some 12.6 billion U.S. dollars.
I believe that the words “training” and “interface” are not just meeting in the concept of LX—the battleground for learning is your own body and your relationship to the technology you use. There is no longer going to be a sense of oneself being separate from technology. As wearable devices are bouncing off the shelves and onto our wrists, ears and eyes, the training is the interface. We don’t have time to learn—only to use. If you are still designing tutorials for the time period between the two, speed it up and rethink it. That moment has shrunk to nothingness. We will no longer be separate from our technology—it will be something that is a part of us, not something we look at, but through, and the future as they say has already arrived.
If you are still designing tutorials for the time period between the two, speed it up and rethink it. That moment has shrunk to nothingness. We will no longer be separate from our technology—it will be something that is a part of us, not something we look at, but through, and the future as they say has already arrived.
Where is the learning actually located, then? I might suggest it lies within decisions made moment to moment and how responsive the interface design is to your needs. UX has not always succeeded at this—let’s see what happens in a big test coming this week: the release of Windows 10. Babies are talking to it and becoming one with the interface. It answers your questions, it gives you options, it interacts. You think together. It’s going to be like a massive social experiment in personality, and I hope you are taking notes. I know I will be.
