Wearable Interaction Design - Opportunities, Challenges & the Current Landscape

Running hot on the heels after the launch of the Apple watch, we are back this month to discuss wearables. From watches to glasses and hair extensions, we are starting to see technology becoming more embedded into personal, wearable objects.

Is this the future of computing, or just another phase that will pass? Will these products separate us more from each other or bring us closer to each other and our environment? What new approaches about designing for wearables will we have to learn over and above what we already know about the platforms we currently design for?

To faciliate what we expect to be a lively discussion, we're grateful for this month's speakers who will cover this topic with perspectives from art, design, commerce and research:

Melissa Coleman

Melissa Coleman is a new media artist, lecturer, blogger and curator of the Dutch exhibition Pretty Smart Textiles. Melissa’s works are critical explorations of the body in relation to technology. Coleman writes for Fashioning Technology and teaches at art and design schools in The Hague, Rotterdam and Tilburg and at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Where are we now with wearables and e-textiles? 2014 is starting to look like the year that wearables will finally become, well, wearable instead of just a trend forecast. After the announcement of the iWatch it seems like the right time to look at some of the best wearables that have been developed in art and design in the last few years, together with some soon to be released fashion-tech products. During the discussion we will extrapolate and speculate what could be coming next and what opportunities are yet to be seized in the field of wearable technology.

Kevin McCullagh

Kevin is founder of Plan (http://www.plan.bz/), a product/service strategy consultancy providing strategic guidance to some of the world's leading names in consumer technology, healthcare, mobility, and consumer goods. He also writes, speaks, and curates conferences on design, business, and society. In his talk, he will outline four key hurdles that wearables must clear (http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025180/why-wearable-devices-will-never-be-as-disruptive-as-smartphones)before they can become mainstream, and reflect on how well the Apple Watch measures up (http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035611/apples-watch-wont-replace-a-rolex) against them.

Becky Stewart

Becky is a founder of Codasign (http://codasign.com/) and Anti-Alias Labs (http://antialiaslabs.com/). She completed her PhD in acoustics and spatial audio with the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London in 2010 and now combines signal processing with physical computing. Her projects are documented on her website (http://theleadingzero.com/) and blog (http://blog.theleadingzero.com/).

Becky will discuss designing and building wearable technology by looking at four different projects - none of which rely on a screen for interaction. They will span a jacket with embedded cameras, a playful baby onesie, a conceptual necklace and shoes that guide you home. She will discuss the collaborations involved, the skills needed and the techniques used to construct the garments.

Duncan Fitzsimons

Duncan is director and founder of 17TH Design and Invention based in Camden, London and previously co-founded and ran a design consultancy named Vitamins. Duncan’s career as an industrial designer has seen him designing products ranging from from public display systems to micro scale surgical devices and hospital furniture, many of which have resulted in patented new technologies.

Forget “wearable technologies”, think “new possibilities”: How can we truly get ahead of the bandwagon, and create something truly innovative? Duncan believes that we need to move away from a technology focus, away from using it as the starting point for a new design. There are benefits in finding problems everyone else is avoiding, and solving that. As all designers, no matter what specialisation, want to create new possibilities and new experiences, collaboration between disciplines is when the real magic happens, and crucially so with wearables.