The Apple Vision Pro is missing one simple feature

13 Feb The Apple Vision Pro is missing one simple feature

Apple’s new Vision Pro spatial computer has many high-tech capabilities. It seamlessly blends atmospheric fog around items in the user’s vision field, uses a “finger pinch” cue to click on objects, and can render 3D objects like F1 cars or architectural models. One thing it hasn’t figured out yet: how to let users easily check the time.

Currently, the best way to find out how long you’ve been binging your favorite TV show through your headset is to navigate to the control center or download a widget. Considering that the Vision Pro is built to immerse users in a digitally enhanced reality, this process seems a bit clunky. If the tech is meant to someday become ubiquitous—and even subsume products like the MacBook and iPhone—simple features are what might make the headset feel less dystopian and more practical.

Product designers Yasir Eryilmaz and Osman Köycü took note of this UX shortcoming and decided to devise a solution. Their concept shots, posted to X, show two potential options. With a slight twist of the wrist (similar to how you wake up the Apple Watch), a digital or analog clock display will float in semitranslucent graphics above the user’s wrist.

“Vision Pro can sometimes feel like a casino, where time becomes a blur,” Eryilmaz wrote in an email to Fast Company. “That’s what [Köycü] and I wanted to address. We brainstormed the most glaring issues and realized that existing solutions, like clock widgets, lacked simplicity and a fun factor.”

The Vision Pro is already adept at catching a wearer’s physical cues and following along. By tracking eye movements, the headset is able to identify what the wearer is looking at and allow them to select it. Even with their hands tucked in their lap, users can pinch, pull, and click on various icons in their visual field. Incorporating a gesture to easily check the time while simultaneously drawing, watching videos, or searching the web could be a simple fix that would help integrate the Vision Pro into daily life.

“To the ‘Why not just wear a watch?’ folks, it’s about seeing beyond,” Eryilmaz wrote. “Why limit ourselves to a tiny physical screen when augmented reality offers an expansive canvas right on our wrists?”

Source: Fast Company