We often think of user interfaces in terms of the way something looks. Is it flat, bright, clean or cluttered? Is it easy to navigate? Where’s the search box?
But at Apple, Google and other companies involved in the growing world of wearable computing, the user interface means a lot more than just the visual design of something on a screen. It also applies to how often you have to take your computer off to charge it.
As I reported last week with my colleague Brian X. Chen, Apple has been working on ways to maintain a longer battery life in its anticipated iWatch, a curved smart watch that is expected to be announced later this year and will have a number of health-related features.
One person who has worked with Apple on the company’s explorations into wearable computing said that Apple sees the number of times you have to charge a smart watch as just as important as how you interact with the device’s screen.
“If you have to take the watch off every few hours to charge it, that’s a poor user interface,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a ban on discussing unannounced Apple products.
As we wrote, to solve this problem Apple has been experimenting with ways to prolong the power of a smart watch by using solar power, motion charging or magnetic induction, which allows a device to be placed on a charging plate so an electrical current can wirelessly add power to the device.
While solar power and motion charging are used in some watches today, people who work with Apple say these technologies are at least two to three years away from being a viable addition to an Apple-made smart watch. Solar, for example, is likely to appear in MacBooks or iPads before it appears in an iWatch.
Apple might be trying to learn from Google’s mistakes.
One of the biggest complaints from people who own Google Glass is that the device lasts for only about four hours with continuous use before it runs out of battery power.
Google has said it is working to improve the battery life of Google Glass, but packing so many components into a such a small space has proved to be more difficult than engineers had anticipated.
Given that wearables could end up becoming a major part of the workplace, battery levels and the amount of time it takes to recharge a wearable computer are going to be of the utmost importance to users.
J.P. Gownder, a Forrester Research analyst, said in an email that wearable computers, including watches and glasses, “will soon be taking the enterprise by storm, with the company-provided wearables market surpassing the consumer market within the next five years, and ultimately going mainstream by 2020.”
To get there, these devices will need to be able to operate for long periods of time and also have the ability to charge quickly. No matter how great the Apple iWatch or Google Glasses are, if consumers have to continually take them off and plug them into a wall, that’s a user interface no one will want.