We Need to Talk About Glass. (a.k.a Glass UX WTFs)

ME: It’s been over two months of on-and-off Glass usage, and it’s time for me to bring out the (wannabe) UX Designer in me and constructively criticize the Glass UI.

YOU: But, the title of your post makes me question its constructiveness.

ME: But, that was just to keep things provocative. Okay! The best way to criticize someone/something is to do it with a Compliment Sandwich where you pack your critique between compliments. I’m gonna take it tex mex and try to do a burrito, where it starts with a good bite, and slowly gets to the messy bottom where the whole thing unravels unto itself.

I love the voice UX on the Home Screen. I have already sung my praises about it in my last post, but let me reiterate: "Ok, Glass" + Google’s NLP = Great Success!

YOU: Can I try it?

ME: Wait there just a sec! Let me explain how this UX flow works… Just so you don’t get stuck while trying it.

YOU: Okay.

ME: The Nav (Driving Directions) experience is also almost perfect.

YOU: Why not just perfect?

ME: Because you HAVE to touch and swipe down to get to the awesome voice UX from there. Or, you could end navigation with your voice, and then go to the home screen… But these things needn’t and shouldn’t be mutually exclusive! And why should I swipe down from Nav, but swipe forward from Strava to get to home? Google’s UX team messed this one up ;)

YOU: Uhhh, sorry bro! You lost me there.

ME: Sorry, I didn’t know I was a Brogrammer. Anyway, I will get to those issues soon. But you basically control glass by swiping this little touch-sensitive strip on the side of your frame.

Swipe down to dismiss becomes intuitive after a couple of tries.

Swipe forward and backwards to make “cards” swipe left and right respectively is logical once you visualize them on an imaginary sheet of paper that folds around your glass frame over the touch panel, and you are moving the entire sheet to get the piece of information you want to display inside your view frame. So swiping forward makes the card in view move to the left and bring the card to its right into view.

Sorta like this:

YOU: Aah! That does kinda make sense.

ME: But, it still isn’t that intuitive, even after a month of usage. It’s one of those things that makes perfect sense from an engineering point of view, but doesn’t fit well with how our brains have been culturally acclimatized. Swiping “forward” to go “back” in history is a bit unintuitive. May be those in the middle-east with a right-to-left script might find it more intuitive, and if that’s the case, then it should be switchable in the Settings. Video Game developers already ran into this issue and have already included support for Look Inversion in FPS games.

Speaking of Settings. It’s a swipe away (to the back) from the Home Screen… Until Live Cards get inserted. Then it could be 2, 3, 4, or any number of swipes to the back.

YOU: Whaaaa??? You lost me again!

ME: Yeah. So, the Touch UX on Glass probably began with this super simple and super intuitive flow. Start at the home screen. Swipe forward to go back in timeline. Swipe back to go to settings. Tap to select and go deeper! Swipe down to go back.

Here, let me draw what goes on that imaginary paper that you swipe around:

YOU: Ok, that kinda makes sense.

ME: But then “Live Cards” got inserted and now settings moved a few steps further away from the home screen.

YOU: What are Live Cards?

ME: So, when you take a picture, or when you do a google search, or ask for directions… you are creating an action in history. And, this gets inserted into your glass timeline as a static card. So you can swipe back and forth through your history to see the pictures you took, or searches you conducted.

YOU: Wait, can I just search for pictures? Or, do I have to go through all my actions?

ME: Can I explain Live Cards first? Anyway, to answer your question… NO! You can’t just search for pictures, and you have to go through all your static cards…

YOU: Lame.

ME: … but then, there are some interactions like starting a stop watch! That’s a live task that runs in the background once you started it. So, that creates a Live Card that updates Live! Get it?

YOU: Yeah, I guess.

ME: Oh! And you start at a Live Card now. Not on the “Home Screen” anymore. I guess it kinda makes sense, since while biking, I just wanted to look up and check my ride stats. So, Strava is a live card. So is Stopwatch! And, Timer!

YOU: Ok, this is kinda beginning to make sense.

ME: And you start at the last Live Card that got inserted. So the info you need the most is right there when you wake the device up, and you are just a swipe away from Home.

YOU: Yeah, makes sense. I think I get it now. Okay, let me try it on.

“Ok Glass! Get me directions to home!”

Wow! Turn-by-turn directions! And when I wake up the display… YEP! Starts with the next turn. This “Live Card” business is starting to make complete sense now. Alright! Let me swipe forward to go to home screen.

Ummm… why can’t I swipe forward?

ME: Oh wait… getting directions from Google Maps??? That’s not a “Live Card” you silly! That’s an immersive experience! You gotta swipe down to dismiss it. Like this:

YOU: Wait! An Immersive what?

ME: Here’s Google’s page describing the Touch UX Patterns.

Actually, Here! My explanation is better:

YOU: Sweet! I think I will save my money for an iWatch!

And we part ways.

But hey! Let’s try to keep this constructive, shall we? So, what can be done to fix this? Let’s start with the problems in the current implementation.

The Mess:

Spatial disorientation when I wake Glass up.

Not sure which way I should swipe to get back home. Sometimes I start on a Live Card. Sometimes it’s immersive. Do I swipe down? forward? backward? once? twice?

Can’t get to home screen easily.

Spatial disorientation explained in a different way :)

Can’t navigate just by using voice.

If I don’t start in the home screen (like an immersive experience), I can’t “ok glass” anything.

Timeline doesn’t help me find stuff.

Sure it’s organized by time, but I can’t get to the last photo I took easily without going through a few google searches and navigation queries that I did after I took it.

Why is Strava a Live Card, while Navigation is Immersive?

Ok, this isn’t entirely Google UX’s fault. Strava should’ve been an immersive experience to begin with. Stop watches, and timers make sense for live cards though. See my recommendation below to see how this will make sense.

Okay, enough with the problems. Let’s get to some solutions.

The Cleanup:

1. “Ok glass!” Everywhere

This is simple enough. The voice interface should be available ubiquitously. If not for doing everything the home screen allows (due to conflicting commands in immersive experiences), it should at least allow for “ok glass, go home” and “ok glass, go back”

2. “Swipe Up” to go Home.

from anywhere!

3. “Swipe Up” from Home to get to your Live Cards and Categories!

Categories lets you search for just pictures, videos, contacts, etc. And, Settings stays one swipe away from Home Screen…

ALWAYS!

Live Cards and Categories occupy their own level now, and are easily accessible from Home Screen.

4. Wake up to “Immersive” or “Home”, and not to a “Live Card”

So, Strava (once they fix Strava to be immersive) or Nav would still be the first thing seen when the device wakes up. But Home screen is a swipe-up away (or, “ok glass, go home” away).

5. Have an option in Settings to switch position of Timeline relative to Home Screen.

That way I can choose to swipe forward to go forward in time.

So, this is what my recommendation for Glass Touch UX looks like:

6. Home Screen can be more dynamic to allow Live Cards to display stuff.

For instance, the last live card could show auxiliary info on the home screen. Like a timer counting down, or the ball game score, or ETA to home.

7. Of course! Include expanded voice command set to navigate categories.

“ok glass, show me pictures”

“ok glass, show me videos”

“next… next… next…”

“view/share”

You get the idea.

What do you guys think? Any feedback would be appreciated.