No-one can fully know where the future will take us, a lot of technology we take for granted today was the stuff of Science-Fiction not long ago. Technology like voice assistants, smartwatches etc. were to be seen in Star Trek, or as gadgets developed by Q branch for James Bond (thankfully no-one has decided to try and mass-market some of 007’s more deadly gadgets). However no matter where the future takes us. The core of good design laid down by many innovators and brilliant designers of the past and present, will always be in demand and necessary. From the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio, the colour wheel and Dieter Rams Ten Principles of Good Design. The design history and the core principles we have covered in this lecture series will stand me in good stead to survive and thrive whatever design challenges the future may bring.
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this week’s lecture in person due to illness. This was particularly disappointing as I had enjoyed travelling through the history of design and how it had led us to the world we have today during this lecture series. I was looking forward to having the opportunity to look at what the future may hold and where I might find my place within it.
Usefully, Kyle our lecturer for this module has been very good at providing the materials covered in class as well as a lecture summary on Blackboard, for anyone unable to attend. I have made use of these materials provided to do some research myself into possible future directions the world of technology may be heading.
Microsoft created this video to show the type of technology they are expecting in the short to medium term. I am sure some of the technology in this video is already being researched and developed at Microsoft. For me what really stood out throughout the video no matter what the sector: be it education, business, leisure was interconnectedness. How content and information could move across multiple devices, from a wearable device such as a smartwatch or band, through a phone or tablet, right the way to huge screens, in laboratories or classrooms. We can see some of early pieces of this technology today, with the “Your Phone” app on Windows. My phone connects with my computer via a shared wi-fi network. I can drag and drop pictures from my phone straight into documents on my PC, or copy a web URL from my PC and open the site on my phone. While it is nowhere near as seamless as the video shows, you can see the early stages and how with development that this movement of content seamlessly between devices could work.
The other stand out thing in the video for me was the use of gesture control and handwriting. Most interaction with the technology in the video was through gestures, no touching, using a mouse or a keyboard. Everything was done through hand movements and smart pen-like devices, a more natural way to interact with technology. Again the early stages of some of the base technology to make this work are with us already. Developed as a challenger to the Nintendo Wii and aiming to move video games away from the stereotype of controllers and sofas. Xbox Kinect could already pick up gestures and movement from people with cameras within it. It is not a huge leap to see how development of this technology could lead to the gesture controlled devices shown in the video.
For me as a Student designer, what does this all mean, well in my view it will mean designing content to be delivered on an even wider range of devices than we do today. Making sure content can remain responsive across the varied range of devices will be key. It will also mean considering how moving from a world where interactions are made by touch, on a device to gestures and movement without touching anything. Thinking about what that will mean in terms of how content is laid out, how people will select what they want to happen and ensuring people get the results they want from gestures will be key. This video definitely show an exciting time ahead for design and many new challenges and problems to solve to make products work for people the way they want. I see this as a good thing and an opportunity to work on exciting new projects.
One company that is working on the hardware to make gesture control and give real sensory feedback from interactions is Ultraleap. Below you can see what I believe is their mission statement from their website which really sets out their goals to make the use of technology more intuitively human.
Source (https://www.ultraleap.com/) Last Accessed 31/12/2022
From advanced hand tracking to removing controllers from Virtual Reality headsets (one of their current limitations) to looking at providing haptic feedback. Ultraleap are clearly forging ahead with removing the need for touching and controllers from human technology interactions.
As an Interaction Designer, gesture controlled devices really do seem to be the next step and just as a previous generation of designers had to navigate the challenges of moving people to touchscreens and voice control. It is highly possible I could be involved in designing the solutions that move us as humans to full gesture control.
No discussion about the future of technology would be complete without discussing the potential of Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) now often collectively known as XR (Extended Reality). While we have had VR in gaming for a little while and AR with the likes of Google Glass. The technology is very much in its infancy, with a huge potential for growth and opportunities.
I was fortunate enough to volunteer recently at Belfast’s first XR festival, which allowed me to be hands on with the hardware and some of the content available. It was a great experience and really showed me the potential of the technology but also its current limitations. The main limitation being the current generation of Virtual Reality headsets. There is no getting away from the fact that in terms of resolution they are simply not able to replicate images anywhere near as well as the high quality monitors we have. Another huge issue was battery life, even with added batteries, between each session we had to check each device’s battery status and take some for charging. If we had relied solely on the devices own batteries, two hours would have been a maximum.
In saying this technology never stands still and I’m sure the hardware will develop quickly and these issues will soon be resolved. In terms of the content on offer two pieces really stood out: “Midnight Story” and “Mental Abuse Matters”.
“Midnight Story” was an animated piece and on the surface did not seem to offer much, but what it did that no other piece of content did, was use gaze tracking. To move the story on from one piece to the next, the headset was analysing where you were looking. For it move on you had to be looking in the right place. Whilst it was certainly not perfect and not entirely intuitive, it did immerse you more fully in the narrative, and as a display of what gaze tracking could offer I felt it did a great job. Gaze tracking could be hugely useful in any number of training situations where staying alert and concentrated are key. The stand out possibility for this technology in my eyes was in the driving Hazard Perception Test and also in studying the effects of where people are looking and therefore concentrating while driving effects their ability to react to a situation.