Get-out-of-the-way(rables)

2-minute read

Today Apple released iOS 14.5, and among a “weed cloud face” emoji (?) it came with some updates for AirPods and Apple Watch integration. These were small and known, but together they paint a much rosier picture of “wearable tech” than what we’re sold.

Often wearables are envisioned as additive.

Something in your field of vision, something you read on your wrist, etc.

There’s a recently publicized common bias that “people tend to solve problems by adding things, even when removing things would be easier”. This feels like a wearables pitfall too.

But today’s “announce calls (as well as messages) with AirPods in” and “confirm payments in the background with your Apple Watch” don’t fall into that bias. You accomplish more, with less interaction.

Even better, they’re features explicitly enabled by wearable tech. They wouldn’t make sense on a phone or Mac by themselves. They are the rewarding payoff movie line that was set up in the first scene. These new features make AirPods and the Watch better at what they do best—being worn. (Specifically here, wearable sensors.)

“Announce messages/calls”, especially, has already had a marked effect on the micro-aggression of receiving a call or message. There’s no bell, tone, ring, or other percussion instrument. There’s just a calm voice, telling you what’s happening, avoiding interrupting you.

It’s not good design because it’s closer to the movie “Her”, but rather because it’s further from noisy R2D2. Less alerts and abstraction, more humane interaction.

It’s these details that remind me that, despite some weird decisions over the past few years, Apple still has strong experience design chops post-Jobs.

Gotta love the small stuff.