Peter Cochrane: All I want for Christmas is a usable UI

Why one of my grandchildren will be getting a smartwatch this year

One of my self-inflicted professional mantras is to: "Continually try out and test as many new technologies as possible in order to gauge their efficacy in whatever management and scientific regime I happen to be working in at the time".

I also extend this into my private life, including pastimes, interests and hobbies. In all cases, I apply a singular crude arbiter: "Does the technology add value to, or in some way improve, my efficiency, effectiveness and my life in general". If yes, it is adopted as a part of my working and living norm. If no, it is quickly rejected and recycled into someone else's life as a gift or donation!

This might seem simple enough, but when life is not just busy but constantly brimming over with activity and customer demands, it can be difficult to fit in new technology adventures. The setting up of new devices and learning new operating systems, applications and techniques can be very expensive in time.

Today, my very specific needs are satisfied by a MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, Alexa, Siri, three cloud accounts, two 1 TB pocket SSDs and a 52-inch desk-mounted monitor as my prime real estate, whilst all forms of desk-top machine, screen and keyboard combinations were rejected decades ago.

This is the kit of a life-long road warrior employed globally by industry, institutions and governments across a broad number of sectors and problem areas, and for me, this ‘personal' technology works well.

But there has been one item that I have actively avoided until last week - a smartwatch. How come? Due to their sheer bulk and thickness they do not sit well under my business shirt sleeve, and they are very hard to access on the move. But in this transitory CV-19 period I have not been travelling and or wearing business shirts - so I decided to take time out to try this ‘wrist' technology for a few days.

I duly ordered a modestly priced iWatch lookalike and commenced my experiments. The first thing that struck me was the sheer quality and range of capability for such a modest price. But being Chinese, it came with a handbook the size of a small book of stamps giving instructions in a three point font supported by some pretty sketchy and hard to decipher pictures. Not surprising, I had to wear a pair of 4x magnification glasses from my lab to read the instructions and negotiate the interface!

Any form of handbook detailing an interface is the first manifestation of poor design

I've always held that the need for any form of handbook detailing an interface, product set up and operations is the first manifestation of poor design, and this was certainly confirmed in short order.

The pairing and connection to services via my mobile was very easy to set up, and the touch screen worked well too. However, to read anything or to identify some of the icons I had to wear a pair of strong glasses.

I remember Steve Jobs declaring that all product design should start with the customer experience and not the technology. How difficult would it be to build the battery and at least some of the technology into the bracelet, and where is the voice interface ? Come to think about it, how about voice I/O via an earpiece using Alexa to control my iPhone? Now that I would like to try and would most likely adopt in the click of a finger.

And so as Christmas looms, I am now wrapping an unexpected and extra gift for one of my young grandchildren with 20:20 vision!

Peter Cochrane OBE is professor of sentient systems at the University of Suffolk, UK