Stop trying to make air gestures happen
The presentation of Galaxy Note 10 last week got quite some media attention. What stood out to me is that the air gestures (which also go by touchless gestures, air motion, and gesture control) are now available with the stylus. This sounds fun, but it is quite useless, really.
Why (new) tech succeeds
Air gestures have been a thing for some time already, yet they never caught on. In my opinion, the reason for that is this:
To be adopted, new technology has to fit in the context it is used in, and make the existing task simpler, faster, or cheaper than the current solution.
Why air gestures did not become a thing (yet?)
Air gestures so far did not match the need of the masses on any specific level, and did not make a lot of tasks particularly faster or easier.
They are not easier
Normally you hold you phone with one hand, and manipulate it with the same or another hand. This is a very automatic behaviour, it is also precise and private enough. With air gestures, you hold phone with one hand, and with another hand, at a distance, manipulate it with broad motions. This is just more inconvenient than tapping the screen that is already in your hand.
They are not faster either
Getting a hold of the smaller motion and mentally calibrating your hand movement takes time. On top of that, it can get annoying when the sensor measurements get glitchy.
In case of this LG model, it happens because the way how this gesture works is reasoned based on the technology, and not on how a person would comfortably use it — it requires a very specific distance to start, and to interact
They do not fit the context
People use phones all day long, by some estimates more than 3 hours a day. Normally, we hold the phones in our hands, and every now and then the phone is on a phone stand (when biking, or watching videos while in commute). Phones are constantly in our hands, they are already easy to use and manipulate. Even if you are using one hand to do so, you can easily operate the apps and sites on your phone.
To use the air gestures while holding your phone would mean that you wave the hand in front of your face, or extend your arm that is holding the phone to a weird straight-arm distance. Neither of these options sound comfortable. In the promo videos involving air gestures the phone is either stationary or floating in front of you. This is deliberate, nobody wants to show how inconvenient the air gestures actually are.
They are not cooler either
If anything, the air gestures just look kinda dorky :) Imagine doing this on the subway or at a party
The stylus will not make it better
Galaxy Note 10 makes the air gestures even more complicated and inconvenient — enter the stylus. Hypothetically, it sounds cool that you can use it as a magic wand to operate your phone. But in practice, to use the gestures, you need to first take out the stylus, then hold it at an appropriate distance, and operate it, all while pressing a button. It just doesn’t look like a good alternative to … I don’t know… pressing the button?
This looks to me like just another solution in search of a problem. The fact that something is technologically possible does not mean you should build it. I have seen one too many design sprints like ‘How can we use technology X to solve our customers’ problems?’. The tech already has an answer (air gestures), but not yet a good question for it (the actual demand). This behaviour is, not only the symptom of less technically advanced companies. The big tech clearly does this too — producing a gimmick for the sake of it.
Not all is lost
Air gestures are not entirely useless, though. I see a niche for that, and as any technology they can be useful beyond playing with it once when you set up your new phone. Just like it happened with AR, there are apps where it adds value to the users (like fitting IKEA furniture in your home, or showing the constellations when you point your camera at the sky). The new technology just does not have to be ‘slapped on everything’ just because.
Air gestures can be handy (pun intended) when the context calls for it: think recipes app (your hands are covered in food and you need to scroll back to the previous step to see how many eggs you had to use); or swiping away notifications distracting you from the navigation app during driving.
Or use the air gestures feature in a TV — that is a perfect candidate for it: TV is a stationery item, it is easier and faster to use hands to operate it, instead of grabbing and pointing a remote.
The simple idea in design thinking is sometimes the hardest to follow — look for a problem to solve first, then think of solutions. Not the other way round.
