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How to Design Successful Wearable Tech
Wearable product design is a specialty skill. It takes years of experience designing lots of products to learn how to miniaturize your designs effectively. Ironically, creating something so small can actually be a huge challenge!
So for this month's Ask the Team, we wanted to talk with Titu Botos, Co-founder and CEO at NeuronicWorks. With over 20 years of experience in the electronics engineering and design industry, he's a wealth of insights into what makes for great wearable technology design. He outlined seven things to keep in mind to ensure a successful wearable, discussed what makes wearable design different from designing other hardware products, and offered his advice for companies looking to design their first wearable product.
What does "wearable tech" mean?
In a few words, wearable technologies are small, hands-free smart electronic devices that are part of the Internet of Things. They can be worn as accessories on your outer shell—on a jacket, for example—or they can be worn close to or on the surface of your skin as bio-monitors. Their connection to the internet allows information to flow seamlessly to and from the wearer.
In sci-fi movies, we see characters augmented with all kinds of futuristic implants. The implants we have now are nowhere near that level, of course, but with wearables we are trying to do something similar--augment our senses or abilities in some way. Wearables, especially those worn next to the skin, often monitor the wearer’s health and fitness. Others can provide access to the internet, augment reality, or boost our existing sensory abilities. For example, some wearables will track your exposure to UV rays. That's not something you're able to estimate yourself reliably, but a wearable can.
But it's important to remember that we are still very much just at the beginning of this industry. Wearables will continue to evolve, the way that PCs from the 1980s have evolved into the smartphones of today. Systems that ride with you or on you for medical purposes—the Internet of the Body—is where I think the next wave of innovation will be in wearables.
iMerciv - wearable mobility device for visually impaired
What makes a wearable successful?
First off, wearables need to be small and lightweight. The user needs to forget that he or she is wearing a wearable at all. If a wearable affects or asks for a change in your behaviour, it will not be a successful wearable. It needs to integrate seamlessly with the user's existing behaviour to be a truly 'transparent' technology. The reason people stop using a wearable is that it imposes on their life or behaviour. Moreover, it has to work, period. If it doesn't perform, then people will stop using the device.
Nobody wants to be charging a wearable continually, so it also needs very low power consumption or be a 'zero power' device. Ideally, the device could charge based on user behaviour, like movement, or it could harvest energy from the environment, like the excess energy coming off the fluorescent overhead lights in your office. The ideal wearable is one that you never have to plug in.
Just as a wearable needs to be 'transparent,' it also needs to be 'invisible.' Aesthetics are essential in the design of wearables. These devices often attract attention. People aren't going to want a wearable that doesn't fit their personal style.
Lotus - wearable personal security device
Wearables also have to be environmentally resistant. Most times, you will be wearing these devices as part of your outer shell, so on your head, over top of a jacket. The device has to be able to stand up to environmental factors like wind, rain or snow, the heat and the cold, and exposure to UV rays. Sunlight, in particular, can be a real challenge for electronics.
Likewise, for those devices worn close to the skin, you can't cause any reactions. If a user finds a device physically irritating, then the device has failed. This is one aspect of wearables that needs to continue to evolve. The ideal would be a device you can wear for days before needing to remove it.
On top of everything, the user interface needs to be friendly and easy to interact with, especially in this era of AI and smart devices, when people are coming to expect that they can speak commands to a sensor or a wearable.
Last but not least, these devices need to be environmentally friendly. Is it recyclable? You have to think about how the device will be discarded and what its end of life looks like even as you are designing it to ensure that it doesn't become electronic trash.
Technomad -Smart Jacket for city cyclists and pedestrians
Aesthetics are essential in the design of wearables. These devices often attract attention. People aren't going to want a wearable that doesn't fit their personal style.
How is designing a wearable different from designing other hardware products?
In wearable technology design, you have a set of limiting constraints, such as the size and closeness to the skin. These variables affect the size of the battery, the radiated power, and the approvals your device needs to pass.
Ironically, you can make a device too small for an easy development. You have to carefully plan the miniaturization process while being able to ensure that the device is working correctly. If it's too small for you to probe, you can't do quality control or debug.
You also have to be aware of your proximity to the user's skin. The FDA regulates the radiated power levels that are acceptable close to the body. You have to consider this as you design and decide what RF technologies you use to achieve your objectives while complying with the regulatory standards.
To add to the complexity, you have limited choices when it comes to the batteries. Too big and your device becomes bulky, too small and the battery becomes inefficient and doesn't have enough life on a single charge to be useful. This is why energy harvesting, zero power designs emerge as a new technology.
You have to carefully plan to get the size that you need while being able to ensure that the device is working correctly. If it's too small for you to probe, you can't do quality control or debug.
What advice would you give to companies that are looking to design their first or next wearable product?
Frankly, go with people who've done wearable product design a few times, made their mistakes, and learned from them. There's no need for you to make all the same mistakes all over again as somebody who has made them already and can avoid the pitfalls.
Do not forget the marketing! Make sure you validate the market before you start manufacturing. Will people want the device you're planning? What does your market research tell you? It's one thing to build something useful to ten people in your office, versus being successful at a scale of 1 million units. After all, wearables are still a niche for consumer electronics. They need to be cheap to succeed, so you need to produce them at volume to lower your costs. But you need to take small steps and have a plan to get there.
Don't forget the approval process you'll have to go through. It's not trivial to get the green light from the FDA. Anything close to or touching the body is ten times harder to certify than something that doesn't, so be prepared for that.
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