Wearables and notifications don’t properly mix
Or why all notifications are not created equal
Wearable technology is starting to take off in 2013 and will play a huge part at CES. With devices like the Galaxy Gear, Pebble, and Google Glass, this field is starting to get crowded.
But, most devices are all inherently centered around one purpose.
Notifications
Most, if not all, of these devices are centered around presenting notifications in a faster way to their users.
But, this won’t work if notifications are not inherently fixed on iOS and Android.
The problem with notifications is that there is no priority or weight to notifications. My Temple Run notification has the same weight as a text from my Mom in my Notification Center. I have to choose between completely ignoring notifications or having them be present to me immediately.
There needs to be a second option available for users. There needs to be a way to prioritize notifications.
With wearables, we need to be able to discern notifications and get the most important information to us quickly. It might be acceptable that the Temple Run notification has the same weight on my smartphone, but, I don’t care about this notification on my wearable. I JUST want to be able to see my texts from my Mom or an email from my Boss.
One possible solution would be to have notifications present like Reminders.app or like Google Now reminders with time/geofencing.
Why doesn’t Apple or Google give me the option to have notifications from apps be present to me in the situations that I want them? It just makes so much more sense!
Another pet peeve that I have is that notifications aren’t synced over devices.
Once a notification is created. It stays there. If I receive a Facebook message and I choose to respond to it on my laptop, the notification for that message still exists on my phone or my tablet and I have to spend the extra second to swipe it away (first world problems, I know)
It’s infuriating that apps can send me notifications, but can’t dismiss or respond back to my responses to their notifications. We need a way to minimalize notifications and reduce the fear of finding notifications.
