Concept: A Smartwatch That Actually Makes Sense

Posted by Lennart Ziburski on October 11, 2012 03:26 pm 44

I'm an interface designer from Germany and have been working on a concept of a smartwatch that actually makes sense. The existing ones aren't quite right for the average iPhone users, but generally smartwatches have huge potential and can be an incredibly convenient device.

via lennartziburski.com

The Case For A Better Smartwatch

Glanceable Information On Your Wrist

More often than not, we pull our smartphone out just to put it back into it's pocket a few seconds later - we are just using it to check on notifications, fire a quick message or see if it's going to rain soon. Whenever we do this, we disrupt what we are currently doing, or even disrupt the conversation we are having with our friends.

A similar problem existed many years ago: When you wanted to know the time, you'd always need to get your pocket watch out just to put it back in seconds later. This was solved with the invention of the wristwatch. And now it's time for this basic concept of glanceable, simple information on your wrist, to take the same leap that smartphones took with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

Not Just A Smaller iPhone

Existing smartwatches are a geeky accessory instead of the wristwatch that every smartphone owner would want to wear. That's for two reasons.

First, for a smartwatch to makes sense, it shouldn't just be a smaller iPhone. Instead, it actually needs to be better than the iPhone for the tasks you are going to use it for. You aren't going to write an email on your watch, but you are going to check the weather on it - because that's something you want to do on-the-go. So it needs to be optimized for these simple tasks being executed in a moving environment - in contrast to current smartphone interfaces, which are made for increasingly complex tasks.

Second, a watch is much more personal than a phone. It's a fashion statement and you actually wear it on your arm for most of the day so that people see it. It's much more intimate than a phone and shouldn't look like a gadget, but like an actual wristwatch.

The Concept

As the concept is quite extensive, I've prepared a neat site which explains my idea and shows it's execution more conveniently. Have a look if you are interested in a smartwatch that actually makes sense:

http://lennartziburski.com/concepts/smartwatch

Now, I've spent quite some time working on this and I'd really love your feedback - is this a smartwatch you would be interested in?

Cheers,

Lennart Ziburski

PS: I hope Josh sees this - I remember him talking about how he wishes there was round smartwatch, so I'm really interested in hearing his opinion.