Always the newsmaker; and now categorized to creative technology, UI/UX Design of Wearables is a matured discipline today.

1. Smart Design for Smart Technology – UI/UX Design for the Wearables
News, News and more news. The convergence of Fashion and Technology started way
back in 2014, and the news never stops pouring in. An interesting fusion of Materials,
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Electronics, Human Intelligence and Biometrics, this
industry transforms and takes design to a completely new pedestal.
Always the newsmaker; and now categorized to creative technology, UI/UX Design of
Wearables is a matured discipline today.
Interesting announcements for products launched or prototypes proposed have made it
to the headlines all through 2014 and early 2015.
 Android Wear based Smart Watches keep coming in every other day
 Apple Watch announced with a bang creates a furor
 Mondaine launches Swiss made Smart Watch with analogue face
 Sony launches an Augmented Reality eyewear SmartEyeGlass
 Google Decides to put in more research into Google Glass and withdraws sales
temporarily to improvise
 Montblanc debuts for the wearables by adding a smart band to its analogue watch
straps
 Apple wins patent approval for wireless virtuality headset, which would probably
mount the iPhone in front of the eyes to augment

2. The Challenges for this unique User Experience
The designers metamorphose their design from a simple traditional web or a mobile
design to offer a completely new User Experience with the wearables design. This new
discipline is in fact creating a design that amalgamates the use of the wearables with the
other devices the wearable is likely to interact with, typically the smartphones and the
tablets.
Wearables present challenges unlike other traditional design projects. It would require
designing of an amazing user experience which is appealing and at the same time
minimalistic. Unconventional hardware features like vibration, voice controls and
connectivity need to be blended in into a completely different User Experience. Smart
Designing ideas are the call of the day for the design of the apps that run on the
wearables.
Interesting apps could become more accessible and hence usable on the wearable
devices as we would be constantly wearing them, rather than fetching and using them.
A thoughtful approach at the onset of the product design of the wearables helps in
combating the challenges for this completely different design focus.
The User Interface & Gestures
The user interactions are made quite simple and the meaning of gestures are all
set to change. Moving on from pinch, swipe, tap to the new gestures round the
block are Force Touch & Taptic Technology. The smart notifications for the
Wearables are again based on human senses since the screen space is less, or
none (like the health bands) the use of fingers is limited to minimal.
Display Restrictions
A single small display cluttered up with yet smaller visuals might put off the user.
The UIs can be swipable multiple screens. Better design approach is achieved
when the Wearables become accessories of larger devices like phones and tablets
and the UX itself encompasses a family of devices, large and small rather than
remain limited to a single device alone.
The need of a Harmonious UI/UX
Since the UX migrates from one device to another and back and forth, the UIs
should be harmonious with each other. The colors, the elements and the gestures
should exhibit consistency across devices to allow seamless switching between the
wearables and the smart phones or tablets.
Actions being done while using the device

3. The uniqueness of the Wearables is that the user would definitely be on the move
while using them and the UI and UX design should be actions based. The user
could be cycling, running, walking or even driving while the UX unfolds. Audio
based inputs and outputs might be more suitable for this design rather than video
or text.
The Environment of the User
Notifications and alerts need to be a bit different for a wearable. Since the user is
constantly on the move, he could be in an extremely noisy surroundings or in a
silent zone.
In any case, it makes more sense to have personal notifications like tap, vibrate or
buzz.
Designing Newer and Newer Wearables
With innovative ideas hitting the market every other season, the Wearables are the most
discussed and probably the most researched amongst the technologies today.
Revolutionizing what we wear, how we wear and why we wear it at all, this design
technique puts a lot of onus on the designers and the engineers to work in tandem to
each other to offer smart, novel, useful devices exhibiting style and purpose thus
enticing the users.
Ingenious thinking and purposeful technology coupled with intuitive designs is going to
take the wearables to the unknown and the unheard of. Smart Watches need no
introduction and we are already talking of contact lenses, eyewear, fitness bands and
many more that are in the pipeline.
Activity trackers, guides, diabetics monitors for insulin levels, music controls, QR
code scanning, or replying to a text message with voice or digital information conversion
with glasses over natural field of vision are only a few of the commonly known tasks
implemented on wearables. An open mind and a broader vision is bound to include more
such tasks into the portfolio.
User Experience – Driving the Wearables
User expectations and imaginations are very important issues to be considered in
designing the UX; making it a combination of art, technology, psychology and cognitive
sciences.
UI/ UX gives a definite focus to recreate real life experiences enhanced with technology.

4. A good design team, especially when it comes to designing the UI/UX for the very new
wearables, guess the sequence of user interactions between the combinations of devices
that the user chooses to use the wearables with, by creating scenarios, predicting
navigational preferences and impersonating user behavior.
The insight into the importance and usability of the features to the user of the wearables
established thus helps to create a consistent user experience.
A satisfying UX is a good mix of various aspects as in any UI/UX design and also in the
design of the wearables.
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