The future may not be pretty, but the tech’s pretty awesome

The news that Facebook snapped up the VR startup Oculus Rift this week brought the tech into the limelight and kicked off a heated debate over the social giant’s plans.

Thanks to the media frenzy, a brand everyone had heard of brought one very few knew existed into mainstream conversation. I didn’t need to Google ‘Oculus’ or ‘Rift’, I had one on my desk.

When I say Oculus Rift isn’t new to me, I’m not being dismissive. Far from it – it’s my job to know about this stuff, assess the relevance of future platforms and create stunning content for it.

Rift has been on our radar (and our heads) at Brandwidth since its original Kickstarter campaign and we’ve had plenty of time to consider incredible possibilities for the future. The concept and rudimentary equipment has been around for decades but the whole platform fell out of favour until recently when Oculus reignited the flame of innovation in this area, along with Sony’s intention to compete with their Project Morpheus.

Virtual Reality (VR) is back, helped in no small measure by Google’s own efforts to tempt consumers to strap technology to their faces and massive advancements in CGI and screen resolution.

OK, it’s not back just yet but the technology is. Oculus Rift content and the delivery platform it requires haven’t launched yet but 2014 is the year it finally hits homes as well as developers’ desks.

So what is it? Well, it’s a black box with a screen over each eye to simulate an immersive 3D environment and motion sensors to track head movements. It’s this experience of looking around the digital landscape that truly transports you to another world. Add a set of stereo headphones and the effect is complete... or is it?

The moment you dip into this virtual world, you’ll be hooked. From rollercoaster rides to epic space battles to eerie haunted houses, the virtual feels real. But what’s missing? You are.

The next big steps will come from the ability to place yourself within these incredible environments. Using Leap gestural units, MYO armbands or bluetooth-connected smartphones, you’ll be able to see your virtual body parts in front of you. At Brandwidth we’re already using iPhones as light sabres – who wouldn’t want to get their hands on one of those inside Rift?

Surely there isn’t another step? Actually, there is. We now have the opportunity to add other people to your virtual world to share the ultimate storytelling experience, explore epic worlds like Disney’s Infinity, or meet in virtual shopping malls, showrooms or conference facilities. Social plug-ins are an obvious move.

Yes, I can see why Mark Zuckerburg wanted to add Oculus Rift to his growing portfolio. but also, if you’ve got the billions to invest and you love technology, why wouldn’t you?

There’s a business case here but there’s also a chance for Facebook to add scale and creative potential through investment dollars that may never have been achieved had they not come on board. The development units (even the new MkII) aren’t yet truly mobile. Freedom from cables and a computer will really move the game on, but we may need to wait for the second generation consumer model for this.

Instantly visit the four corners of the earth, relive history as you walk in the footsteps of astronauts, Presidents or dinosaurs or allow surgeons to operate from within a body. That’s progress.

No, the future’s not all white and shiny if many will sit in a darkened room in their underwear with a pizza on their laps, immersing themselves in virtual worlds... but the technology is undeniably awe inspiring.

iVolution of the Species

Evolution, iteration, or however you want to refer to incremental development is essential for achieving design perfection. Not very exciting though is it?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I used to look forward to the 12 month cycle of mobile phone upgrades. The whole process doesn’t set my pulse racing in the same way it used to and as a self-confessed design, tech and Apple fan, that makes me sad.

The last non-Apple phone I owned was a Samsung Z720, because it was small, light and inoffensive. I bought this just before the first iPhone launched and by the time my one-year contract ran out, the iPhone 3G was poised to appear on the scene.

Smartphone ownership wasn’t unfamiliar territory thanks to my time spent with a Sony Ericsson P900 back when a stylus was the only available input device so I took the plunge and opted for a two-year contract on a 3G. The 3S arrived a year later, leaving me feeling suitably vindicated for taking out a longer contract – the big changes were under the skin.

And so the two-year cycle began. I purchased an iPhone 4, 24 months later a 5... and now I find myself confronted with two new Apple smartphones, the 5c and 5s.

Tech pundits and financial markets alike have chastised the Cupertino giant for not matching Android handsets punch for punch and saturating the free handset market. This isn’t where Apple plays, for very good reason – their perceived value drops, dragging higher spec hardware down with it and introducing an audience unwilling to pay for content.

Apple has successfully cultivated a level of desirability global competitors can only dream of and their hardware retains its aspirational glow thanks to superior material quality, reliability and premium pricing.

Apple’s rivals are consistently guilty of innovation for innovation’s sake, trying to second-guess the market rather than shape it. Samsung is one of the worst offenders, throwing as many digital gimmicks at their handsets as possible in the vain hope that consumers will buy according to checklists rather than useful features. Eye tracking and facial recognition sound impressive but once they’ve been demonstrated in the pub, how many users turn them off again?

Similar criticism has been leveled at Apple following the inclusion of their new fingerprint scanner, Touch ID. Statistics show that very few smartphone users set a passcode so why not make it as simple as possible to secure your handset? Yep, I’ve seen plenty of comments that laptops have had this functionality for years – but they never looked this good! There’s a level of theatre involved that sums up Apple’s appeal to its users and we want to use the hardware, we don’t just feel we have to.

So, has Apple done enough to stay at the top of the smartphone heap? Yes, for one more year. The 5s is a beautifully designed, beautifully made piece of technology that you actually want to spend time with. The 5c makes a great support act, helping its shinier brother appear more sophisticated, seem better specced and offer better value. iOS7 is the added ingredient that gives the evolutionary hardware a revolutionary edge.

Apple must return to significant 12 month product cycles if it intends to stay ahead of the competition. Early iMac updates changed the form factor significantly between the original Bondai, to the angle-poise, to the all-in-one screen but the profile has barely changed in the past 8 years, where design strategy has focused on perfecting the shape, essentially removing the computer and leaving us with the screen – the centre of our attention.

This approach works with larger hardware because of frequency of purchase. We don’t feel the need to renew an expensive piece of desktop equipment as often as a personal mobile device.

The phone market is a different animal where ownership is about features, reliability and user experience but more than anything, it’s about personality. Spectacular product design, ergonomics, weight distribution and use of tactile materials delivers this but we want to be moved emotionally and don’t like to wait two years to see any significant changes.

I’m one of Steve Jobs’ ‘Crazy Ones’ that queues up at 5am on release day, so I want to make damn sure it’s worth the effort every 12 months.

One more thing...

Well it’s a couple of things really – two new iPads. I wrote about new iPhones safe in the knowledge that, like busses, we’d see some Apple tablets come along in quick succession.

The faster and pixelier Retina iPad Mini and super-slim iPad Air are both superb examples of iVolution in action. I may have complained about the iPhone’s biannual updates but these devices illustrate the need for incremental development. When a product is all about the screen (and the content displayed upon it) nibbling away at everything but the glass is perfectly acceptable.

Making the device faster, thinner, lighter and clearer are all more important than unnecessary bolt-on innovation. By 2020 we could just be interacting with a sheet of glass or plastic in varying sizes but where’s the personality or the brand in that?

When your audience demands more and more from less and less, the design and innovation challenges lie in retaining some form of standout in a fiercely competitive market. Every mobile device manufacturer faces the same issue and focus will be increasingly on how and why something works and how it makes the user feel, not merely on how it looks or a long list of features.

Long live the smartphone revolution. Long live the tablet evolution.

Edited and updated from my column in this month's iCreate magazine.

First Byte of the Apple

Designers and creative types are notoriously bad at joining in, they don’t like to play with the ‘normal’ kids. Take it from me, I have first hand experience... I am one.

During my early days in the creative industry, the Mac was a piece of kit in a designer’s armoury that lined up alongside a drawing board, layout pad and Rotring pen. Anyone else remember these quaint objects? Actually I hope all good designers are still intimate with a pen and paper, the drawing board and Rotring probably less so.

The Mac was viewed as the rank outsider in a world dominated by the PC. We took it to heart, not because of its quirkily different beige box and solid construction but the ease-of-use and familiarity of the operating system. To compliment the built-in software, we embraced all things from Adobe, and at the time Quark and Freehand provided options as the support act.

That seems a long time ago (it was) and a lot has changed. The return of Steve Jobs and his creative partnership with Jony Ive delivered the vindication we had all hoped for (and secretly doubted) as Apple began to ship hardware that matched the software for innovation and creative flair, genuinely reflecting our industry whilst also appealing to ‘regular’ consumers outside the design industry.

One of the main differentiators in the Apple vs PC war of words has always been our relationship with the kit. As designers and innovators, we felt our Apple hardware represented so much more than a work tool and we developed a personal connection with the Mac that extended to the right tool in the right environment and became part of the creative process, rather than something to merely deliver it.

So, how have Apple’s products helped to shape the current digital marketplace? There are two key contributors – the design and innovation community and the consumer base.

As I’ve established, the creative industries have grown up around Apple’s software and hardware and key talent has naturally migrated towards Cupertino’s products. This loyalty filtered down from desktops to laptops to iPods to iPhones to iPads. Each device encourages us to create, to push boundaries and innovate wherever we are. We’re also a very forgiving bunch so poor iPhone battery life and signal strength don’t stop us from buying Jony Ive’s beautifully crafted objects.

Apple’s innovation shouldn’t be overlooked. They didn’t introduce the first smartphone or tablet but they cleverly shaped the landscape and introduced the iPhone and iPad to meaningful markets at key times where developers could lead the way with content production.

Apple already had the portable music market sewn up with the iPod, it was an easy step to embrace the familiar iPhone, then another no-brainer when Apple launched a big iPhone – the iPad. The audience was educated in the ways of the multitouch gesture by Apple so tablets became established on Apple’s own terms, not the market’s.

The App Store, iBook Store and iTunes delivery mechanism are so well established that entrepreneurs looking for the best platform to cover all bases naturally start with the most accessible for their customers. Speaking of which, consumers are the other key contributor to Apple’s relevance.

Apart from the stunning product design and ease-of-use, the quality of materials and overall reliability have allowed Apple to charge a premium and set a healthier profit margin than any other manufacturer.

This defines the audience. If Apple consumers are willing to pay up to $900 for an iPad, the first thing they want to do is fill it with stunning visual content (apps, iBooks, etc) to justify their purchase – and they’re willing to pay for it, unlike consumers on rival platforms.

So will Apple’s brand, it’s products and platforms remain THE hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurial focus? It’ll take a lot to sway the creative industry but there are still plenty of rival projects set to divert attention. Google’s Glass, Leap’s Motion and Thalmic Lab’s MYO are all ready to be unleashed over the next 12 months as gestural and wearable tech grabs all the headlines.

Let’s see what Apple has up it’s sleeve... so to speak.

Edited and updated from an article originally published in iCreate magazine, with my next column focusing on Apple's iPhone launch strategy.

Designing the Future at Silicon Beach

Last week, I spent two days basking in glorious sunshine on the English riviera (yes we have one, it’s called Bournemouth). It wasn’t all sitting around outside as I was attending Silicon Beach, an annual conference dedicated to stimulating the mind with a dynamic line-up of speakers from many creative walks of life.

It would be unfair of me to highlight any one speaker over another as all were of such a high quality – higher in fact than any conference I have attended before (and I’ve been to a lot!)

Credit for this line-up goes to event organiser Matt Desmier who pulled a bunch of mavericks (including myself) into 16 hours of coherent entertainment.

The presentation videos will follow over the next few weeks. For now, my irreverent slides are available on Slideshare but here are some thoughts I pulled together for the Silicon Beach event book...

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” The age-old question that encourages us to reach for the stars and realise our true potential. But what do we ever really do about it?

It’s a tough question for a kid – Astronaut? President? Oscar-winner? Tea cosy? If you chose a more creative path, your answer may have been Picasso, Thomas Heatherwick or Jony Ive but the end result would be the same – do what you want to do, then adjust accordingly

To be honest, I think the whole thing puts too much emphasis on ‘growing up’. I hope never to lose a certain childlike-enthusiasm when approaching life’s challenges. Knowing too much about how something works or behaves all too often results in a solution governed by rules and barriers.

I’m not rebelling against briefs or processes per se, I’m just suggesting we take those ‘guidelines’ and push, shape and challenge whenever possible. Those kids aspiring to a career as an astronaut were aiming for the stars and that’s the place to focus, not the launchpad.

So how does this relate to creatives of all shapes and sizes when many have already set off on a career path or feel there’s nowhere else to go? This isn’t a rallying cry to push your Herman Miller chairs from your desks, close down your Macs, walk slowly to the door and head for a recruitment agent. No, shape what you have first – and that starts with you, then the work, then the client. If you can’t tick those three boxes then maybe you should consider plan A after all.

If we’re aiming high, then let’s extend that to creative daydreaming, otherwise labelled as Innovation. Where’s my flying car? My neural Twitter implant? My inflatable lifesaver pants? Innovation has been regarded as a buzz-word, dragged out and paraded around when really only referring to something new – not necessarily innovative.

With a scattergun approach to job titles resulting in celebrities such as Will.i.am jumping on the ‘Creative Director’ and ‘Innovation’ bandwagon, the boundaries are being blurred further still. Who is providing genuine solutions and who’s merely delivering a beautifully crafted answer?

These aren’t mutually exclusive – far from it, the best solutions arise from closely aligned creative, technology and innovation teams. Back to the daydreaming...

If we look to the past for inspiration, and the present for the tools, then our solutions should be based in the future. When Leonardo da Vinci sketched his plans for a helicopter or Alexander Graham Bell made his first telephone, they had a much bigger picture in mind.

Unleash creative abandon on an epic scale and you’ll find that not only do you discover an abundance of answers and unleash that hidden potential, but enjoy yourself in the process. Isn’t that where we came in?