Introduction The advent of wearable devices opens up a whole new world to be explored. It will soon be filled with a lot of different meanings and will require its own original approach. Not only new habits and comforts, but also addictions and ulterior sources of stress will arise if, as professional designers, we fail to handle this challenge. We cannot delegate everything to the competence or self­discipline of the next users of our apps if we want them to build more conscious habits in the future. The responsibility of designers is to start from this problem, empathize with the user´s journey and discover that this journey leads to the horizon of meanings and introduces opportunities we have been looking for. The first problem that comes to mind with the proliferation of connected devices is cognitive overload: not only for the great amount of information, but also for the volume of possible notifications, choices and generic interactions to which the user is subjected. As we are not able to limit the number of devices or the amount of information, we must therefore build a more spontaneous flow, apply filters and bring out the most relevant content for each individual, requiring the most minimal cognitive effort possible. Once aesthetic principles are established, the role of design is shifting from the design of visual elements to the behavioral design. So forget about beauty and balance: What you have to do is an in­depth analysis of everything. # 1 Wearable First Devices like the Apple Watch are, probably also because of the strategic choices of the company, designed as a second screen; just as the first smartphone was treated as the second screen of desktop products. This is the present, but this trend might change fast. In both cases, we will need to produce pieces of comprehensive and coherent information, thought as wearable first. With visual recognition, or skeuomorphism, we can continue to help show users visual elements, which they are familiar with, where still possible. However, to minimize the amount of information and make them less invasive, we will be more likely required to experiment with new languages. Intuitive, direct, essential. For design experts: We are referring to the paradox of choice of Søren Kierkegaard and Hick’s law here. # 2 Significant Notifications It is easier to take a look at your watch rather than pulling a 5" screen smartphone from your pocket. However, this does not oblige us to flood the user with notifications when he is asking to have fewer of them. Thus, not only do we have to think about a faster language, but we also have to select the source of the content that should be reported. For example, we can presume notifications such as those on facebook are not so essential, but it is rather important to ensure the user is notified about an imminent appointment marked in his calendar.

This again is not just an aesthetic choice: rather a choice of sense. Last but not least, the optimization of functionality is taking into account computational performances, use of 4G, and battery capacity. #3 Data­Driven Insights Data collected by wearable devices will be in most cases be spontaneously produced directly by the physical bodies of people that are wearing them. This implies that, as in other cases, people will produce a huge volume of information that will remain useless until we find a sustainable methodology to explore and extract data with a greater insight in order to build predictions and provide relevant content, meanings and personalized notifications for each user. Anticipating user needs by giving them what they ask for, or even what they do not yet know they want, will become a good design practice. #4 Invisible User Interfaces Interfaces are not only visual, so we have to think about interactions with invisible elements. Here are just few of several possible examples: “Ok Google”: We all know it. Speech recognition will be increasingly used especially where screens are not the primary mode of interaction. Lights and flashes: Already widely used especially for notifications. But their great potential is yet to be discovered. Contrary to the smartphone, which is often kept in a pocket or in a bag, a watch is always under your eyes. Vibration: Thanks to a combination of intensity, duration and rhythm you could build a real language (Morse code is composed of "duration" only). The challenge for designers is to encode an understandable rhetoric for vibrating syntax. Gestures: Shaking, wide arches, rotations, karate moves. Even an air alphabet. #5 Reimagining Concepts Building relevant UX or even reshaping an entire language will require a tremendous effort especially concerning some concepts we take for granted. The representation of ideas such as maps, calendars and lists could radically change if you put them on small screens or even in non­visual navigation systems. I have recently worked on the conceptualization of a hybrid location­based to­do list tool displayed as a series of cards to browse instead of the classic elements anchored to a date or a map. #6 Interusability Talking about the Internet of Things is not enough anymore. That everything will be connected, we already fully understand. But this will lead us to face a number of new complex problems. A coffee machine would not start as it was connected to a DB, which reported that you had exceeded the optimum daily caffeine ration. Another example, there could be a bug that does not allow you to start the washing machine. It might even happen that a hacker attack blocks all the smart washing machines in the world and we will stay with our smelly clothes for a whole week.

We always have to take these sorts of problems into consideration and give the user the possibility to make his own choices even if they are not as "smart" as we think. The ability to move between devices using the same "service" will probably need a common language, new platforms, and new concepts of security and privacy. Also desktop role is changing: in a paradigm where everything is connected to the internet and accessible from remote control, desktop devices could possibly become just dashboards through which we could coordinate the whole system.