As I’m sitting here in line for the Force Friday on a Thursday night, I figured I’d do a post about something that’s been bugging me most of the day.

What is it, you might ask? It’s what Lenovo, and some “tech reviewer” thinks is the future of wearables.  

It was this article on Mashable..

It’s their new wearable tech, the Magic View. Basically, it has a normal screen like a Moto 360, and a little side interactive screen below the main face.

  
The idea is you drag content from the main screen into that window, and then to view it, YOU HOLD THE WATCH UP TO YOUR EYE AND LOOK INTO THE WINDOW.

THAT, according to Lenovo, and the tech review guy – IS THE FUTURE.  

The view is supposed to be equivalent to looking at a 14 inch desktop display. 

If that’s the future, I’ll build a time machine and go back in time over and over in order to avoid a future where sucky UX becomes the norm. 

So let’s look at two things here that are glaringly wrong, as far as not only that creating a great user experience should be all companies mission statement, but also continuing the pattern of creating crappy experiences just to be different.

It’s as if Lenovo said “Well, we’ll never be great at figuring out how to move user experience design forward, so let’s just make something that’s blatantly bad, but looks cool.” 

Or something like that.

Back to the 2 things.  

One, you have to hold it up to your eye and look into it. What?? That apparently makes a great user experience, because, as you know, everyone loves shoving stuff in their faces while holding ones arm in an uncomfortable position, as if to say “my vision is so bad, I have to hold the screen THIS CLOSE!”

Two: A 14 inch display? Have guy EVER seen how SMALL a 14 inch desktop display really is?? 

While I’m at it, if you’re going to make wearable tech, make it look nice, unobtrusive, and so we, the customers don’t look like complete dorks.

Ever see anyone actually use Google Glass, mouth agape, drool coming out of the corner of their mouth, staring upwards into God only knows where, madly flicking at the side of their temple as if flicking away a fly that keeps dive bombing you … Yeah, that makes you look SO cool. 

So instead let’s have a watch we have to stare into like its a Captain Video Decoder Ring…

My advice to Lenovo? Give it up and stick to making laptops. 

Please. We don’t need more people looking dorky with bad tech ideas. 

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