In the 1960s, amidst the space race and countries gearing up to travel to the moon, the foundations for interface were laid. We follow the same ideas to define digital interfaces today. The original principles make machines, devices, and technology easier to interact with. The advent of connecting IoT (Internet of Things) has made interactions digital. We have progressed from interacting via mouse and keyboards, to touch screens, and now to voice activation.
This progress, although impressive to say the least, has reduced the physical touch aspect significantly.
The Need for Mobile and Wearable Apps
The answer to bringing back physical interactions and gestures is wearable devices. These devices, such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart glasses, ear pods, and now smart rings, engage our body in the experience and are incorporating gestures more and more to make the experience akin to our natural state.
However, these wearable devices need to be controlled and managed to navigate IoT as intended.
This is one of the latest mobile app development trends, to create apps that can help you manage your devices, and personalize connecting IoT experience.
This blog talks about three key considerations while developing mobile and wearable apps that will improve user experience and help integrate IoT.
Device Management
There is a gap in the market for applications that can centrally control multiple devices within one action center. The idea is similar to smart homes management applications, that control electronic appliances, doorbells, lighting etc. Searching for your smartwatch or earpods is the modern equivalent of searching for your car keys. Since most wearable devices now come with geo-location trackers, it should be possible to find them using your phone, and vice versa!
Part of improving the wearable experience should be making your devices reliable, which will not be possible if they run out of batteries. The phone can be used as a reminder to charge any of the wearable devices connected to it, instead of each device individually beeping or turning red just before it abruptly dies on you. This helps keep a track of how prepared your wearables are to support you through your day.
Mobile phone apps can also personalize your experience with wearables. You should be able to name your devices to identify from the scores of other wearable devices. Ideally, you should be able to control connections centrally.
Privacy Controls
Wearables collect multitudes of data regarding our location, medical data, purchases, what we watch and much more. With NFC technology, multiple wearables allow for quick payments via our devices without even having to access our physical wallets.
While authorities are ensuring that the organizations ask for clearance, permissions on wearable devices are much harder to keep track of. This is a major loophole in privacy controls. It is also one that many organizations are exploiting as they target consumers with personal information.
A centralized privacy control center is crucial to keeping track of what data your wearables are collecting. Moreover, devices should inform you while recording you through a camera or microphone. Such protocols are mandatory on mobile phones now, under the latest Android and iOS updates.
Security
The repercussions of data breaches in this age are drastic. The damages could range from financial loss and be as grave as life threatening. Location tracking offers organizations the benefit of understand consumer behavior. However, geo-tracking features have been used by stalkers in the past to follow their victims. Likewise, financial data being leaked has caused losses in millions of dollars in every part of the world.
Mobile Apps need to ensure total online security of the wearables connected to them. Most of the wearable devices connect through Bluetooth which is easy to hack into. The wearable apps should inform the user via notification about disconnecting or a secondary connection immediately. Through this mechanism, using wearable devices becomes much more secure.
Conclusion
The time of connecting IoT is exciting and wearable technology is ushering in the digital age like never before. Developers can make these advancements readily usable and adaptable to our lifestyles, by giving users control and simple management tools. Another consideration for wearables is to make their UI/UX more intuitive by incorporating the gestures and mannerisms that people have adapted over a long period. Not to forget, user security must be a top priority.
Xavor Corporation’s mobile-first initiative has given it the opportunity to work with Fortune 500 Companies and adapt systems and operations to mobile phones in a safe and effective manner. Xavor’s experience in mobile app development makes us the premier choice for your application needs whether you are looking to build apps for internal or commercial use.