With the arrival of the new year comes a large number of predictions about what 2014 will bring in terms of app design and new mobile hardware technologies and trends.
These predictions are often based upon industry and manufacturer announcements and documented areas of investment and research. However a more imaginative and less accurate approach is needed to predict what the next decade or indeed century will bring.
Touch screens now make hardware keyboards look somewhat redundant on a mobile device and speed of use and accuracy will surely determine what will be the next major way that we interact with our apps. Google glass and the wider smartphone genre makes extensive use of voice recognition however this does present a slightly unnatural and uncomfortable method of interaction with an inherently non human device, at least for some. Anyone who has used a voice recognition system while trying to contact their bank or any service provider may recognise its flaws.
Samsung has already implemented eye scanning technology in to it’s phones with mixed results and this looks like an area with vast potential for users to quickly interact with their apps.
The technology certainly looks a long way off but perhaps thought controlled interfaces could provide the quickest and most convenient way to interact with an app saving users time and effort. It is curious to consider how this would be implemented by designers, developers and hardware manufacturers.
There has much recent speculation and prediction of how apps and the internet will soon become part of cars and vehicles. The very well implemented Google maps has been enormously popular. Perhaps further in to the future in an age of space travel and exploration we will see apps that will allow us to navigate other solar systems and galaxies rather than counties and countries.