The development of wearables is continuing apace. Established luxury and tech brands, newcomers, startups, have all begun creating serious offerings. Consumers can already choose from a range of products, from wristbands to watches to rings and other kinds of devices.
Expectations
Consumers’ expectations seem to fall into two categories: smart and pretty.
‘Smarter’ means that just raw data is not enough any more. We seem to expect recommendations or a program tailored to the individual. Even simple data like numbers of steps needs to be interpreted and can mean very different things, depending on what a person’s goals are. So customisation as well as contextual data analysis are important areas of development.
‘Prettier’ wearables prioritise fashion, and are being created by fashion brands mainly in the form of hybrid rings, watches and jewellery that include selected smart functionalities.
The dilemma
Here comes the dilemma: sophisticated software and hardware, by definition, is dynamic, fluid and changing while luxury products like jewellery keep their value precisely because they don’t change and are meant for a lifetime (or more) of use.
It will be interesting to see whether and how designers go about combining these two aspects into successful hybrid forms. And how these, in turn, might change people’s behaviour and perceptions of smart wearables.