Wearable technologies – particularly smartwatches – have five potential superpowers that news organisations can tap into, according to Tom Quast and Nils Kaehler, founders of Creative Vikings, a smartwatch news app.
The pair outlined their ‘superpowers’ vision during an afternoon session at the news:rewired conference today. And those ‘superpowers’ are:
1) Portable while operational
2) Wearables allow hands free use: smart watches concentrate on display’s vibrations or voice output
3) They have sensors that monitor things like heart rate and activity levels
4) They are attention grabbers…
5) … and they are always on
These five key features, they say, can help redesign the way news is written – and some news groups – like The Guardian – have already started to try this out (see the Moments app).
The most important element for wearables, they say, is to make notifications ‘glanceable’, and visual, to make it easier for users to consume the news, as they are only ‘micro-interacting’ with devises.
The idea, they said, is to avoid long text, use more images, sounds, and vibrations to grab the attention of the user and tell the story quickly.