The development direction of Apple Watch from Disneyland

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Eliminating friction and bringing convenience, this is the ultimate value of Apple Watch.

Many people think that smartwatches are a failure in the innovation process - the reason is simple, smartwatches do not come up with an obvious killer application. However, such products are more like sauces. It seems that we can't fill our stomachs with them, but why not enjoy the extra flavor they bring?

When we walked into the hotel, the system recognized us, the expected room number popped up on the watch, we walked directly to the room and opened the door with the watch.

When we walked into the airport, our flight information was displayed on the watch, including navigation information to the corresponding boarding gate. To check in, we just swiped the watch. And when we landed, we walked directly to the private car we rented in advance and opened the door with our watch.

When we need to attend a meeting, the watch will pop up a notification message to tell the user that the current traffic conditions are very bad and it is best to leave early.

During the shopping process, we found ourselves contacting family members to confirm whether they needed to buy milk, and we could simply speak the name of the contact to the watch. In the future, the watch will even be able to check the milk supply in the refrigerator, but it is not available yet.

Of course, all these functions can be achieved through mobile phones. For example, using Google Now on Android. In this case, the watch does not create new functions, but makes the existing functions more convenient and easy to use. Through a complex background processing system, it can provide corresponding judgment results based on the user and the current environment. In contrast, mobile phones buried in pockets or wallets for a long time are not convenient enough, and are obviously too versatile and not specialized enough. Our watches are like a small window that we can use to peek into the wider online world.

After developing my own watch extensions, using other extensions, and listening to many discussions on this topic, I can come to one clear conclusion - watches are too small and will always be limited. You will never be able to play with a watch UI. Even the smartest programmers are limited by the tiny screen and the weak processing power of the watch.

But all this is not a problem. Each device has its own development direction. Whether it is users or developers, it always takes a lot of time to adapt to a new device.

A smartwatch isn’t about enabling new types of apps, it’s about making it easier for users to plug into larger, smarter systems that make our lives run more smoothly.

Disneyland-style smartwatch understanding angle

One of the most surprising and revealing examples of this perspective is Cliff Kuang’s article “Disney Spends $1 Billion on MagicBands,” and FastCompany’s Austin Carr also wrote about it in “The Huge Business Opportunities of Reinventing Happiness.” So what do these two in-depth and revealing articles say?

Disney created a colorful MagicBand that you wear on your wrist. The band contains a lot of electronics that allow Disney to know who you are and where you are in the park. Disney communicates with the band to unlock the "Disney Experience" step by step. It's a great way to use the potential of wearables, and there's no learning or adaptation cost involved - just like the name of the band, it's like magic.

What exactly can this wristband do?

▪ Start ordering before you arrive at the restaurant. This way, we can choose our preferred seat right after we walk in, and the service staff will serve our food directly when it is ready, because Disney knows who we are, where we sit, and what we order as tourists wearing wristbands.

▪ Disney will create an itinerary based on everyone's preferences to help everyone experience all the projects they are interested in in the park in the shortest way. I think in this way, visitors will definitely be able to complete the park tour more easily based on the itinerary - instead of wandering around like in the past.

▪Once the flight arrives in Orlando, everyone will be able to take a special flight directly to the park, and the luggage will be delivered directly to the corresponding customers at the hotel where they are staying. In the park, we don’t need to use tickets - the magic wristband is our ticket. Of course, there is no need to carry cash, and all items in the park will be directly deducted from the credit card linked to the magic wristband.

As Cliff Kuang said in the article:

For Disney, the MagicBand communicates with thousands of sensors and connects to hundreds of systems that make up MyMagicPlus, turning the park into a giant computer—with real-time data streams showing where visitors are, what they are doing, and what services or products they want. It is designed to satisfy all the wishes of visitors.

Obviously, the bands aren't the most important part of the system. A smartwatch or smartphone would have done the same thing. The real significance of the MagicBands lies in the design, plus the complex backend system that makes the whole thing work. The more we learn about the subject, the more we're amazed.

Surprisingly, there was considerable resistance within Disney that such a system was unnecessary. Many managers, even a majority, voted against it. Looking back, such a reaction is indeed a bit strange, especially considering that the MagicBand was a complete innovation of Lee Gardens.

As time goes by, I believe the world around us will become a larger Disneyland, where we can enjoy a smoother and more convenient lifestyle. Although this result will happen anyway, the birth of smart watches will undoubtedly make it come faster.

How can Apple do better in this direction?

While Apple is doing its best to help this trend, I think they can do more to help developers. Here are a few suggestions:

▪ Open Siri to applications. Using Siri voice service on the watch can indeed bring a great user experience. But if the application can be extended through Siri, the addition of voice control mechanism will undoubtedly give developers a wider space to play. Such an effect can be said to be icing on the cake for mobile phones, but it can be said to be indispensable from the perspective of watches.

▪Indoor positioning. We really want to have services like Google Street View and Google Maps in indoor environments. But currently we still can't guide users to their destinations smoothly indoors because we have neither indoor maps nor indoor "GPS". To fill this gap, we need to create applications that can have the same effect indoors as they do outdoors.

Apps as service containers. Apple uses apps as the unit of development, but apps no longer exist as single programs as they used to. They are built from a large number of components. An app might have a watch extension, AirDrop support, a sharing extension, a photo extension, a keyboard extension, a news widget, handle remote communications, and more. The environment on the phone has evolved organically, but it has also made apps more confusing and difficult to develop. I believe that everyone who has developed an iOS app can understand how difficult it is to get code running in the background or to communicate between different components. It may be better to think of a single application as a service running on the phone. Such a service can provide an API and can be used by all components in the application in a unified way, including sending notifications, calling functions, and syncing status.

▪ Provide open standards for connecting apps to experiences. Apple is clearly more conservative and stubborn than Google in controlling the data used to create user experiences. Therefore, on the iOS platform, apps are actually isolated islands. If different apps can work together and provide a seamless user experience, the results will definitely be much better. If our taxi app can work with the airport app, the improvement in travel efficiency is absolutely self-evident. I believe that users and developers will warmly welcome such a result.