Marek Pawlowski and Alex Guest take up Patrizia Bertini’s challenge from the last episode and go in search of wearable technology beyond the smartwatch and fitness tracker. After questioning the term ‘wearable’ itself, Marek and Alex cite examples ranging from illuminated clothing to medical implants, before searching for design approaches which might result in products more relevant to users’ lives.  Marek challenges listeners to abandon the smartphone as the anchor point for wearable products and see whether it leads to greater creativity…tweet us your feedback @mexfeed or email designtalk@mobileuserexperience.com.

On this edition

• Marek Pawlowski, co-host & founder of MEX (@marekpawlowski)
• Alex Guest, co-host & CEO of Zingy.life (@alexguest)
• With thanks to Patrizia Bertini, co-host & Senior Strategy Consultant, Lithium (@legoviews) for setting the challenge. Patrizia returns in future shows.

Links

• MEX Design Talk 25, the 2016 UX Review, where Patrizia set the wearables challenge
• Financial Times How to Spend It magazine
• Lumo Herne Hill Jacket, with 14 LEDs and a lithium polymer battery
• TNW on the smart breast pump
• Nature article on impact sensing membranes
• Principles for natively neighbourly multi-touchpoint experience design
• Team Pro shirt by Polar, with embedded sensors for performance training
• Run Britain, used by Alex for tracking his runs
• Strava, used by Alex for tracking his runs
• Zingy.life, Alex’s start-up
• Apple HealthKit
• Apple ResearchKit
• Vi, artificial intelligence coaching headset
• Sen.se ThermoPeanut, a simple, purpose-specific sensor
• Tile, for tracking possessions
• Pzizz, for better sleep
• Sleepio, for better sleep
• Innovate UK video on material advances which might lead to an invisibility cloak
• Pins Collective, the digital pin badge
• Elektrocouture’s Berlin Graffiti project with illuminated clothing
• Energy harvesting from piezoelectric nano fibres
• Alexa Shoen’s tweet about interesting wearables

  @marekpawlowski Anything in sextech (@StephanieAlys) or fashiontech (@lilaineurope)?

  — Alexa Shoen (@alexashoen) January 12, 2017

About MEX Design Talk & how to get in touch

The podcast for the MEX community, interviewing UX pioneers, exploring emerging technologies, user behaviour and how to design better digital experiences.

• Archive of previous MEX Design Talk episodes
• Subscribe for future editions by searching ‘MEX Design Talk’ in your favourite podcast player. We’re also on iTunes and SoundCloud.  For the old school, here’s our RSS feed
• If you enjoy MEX Design Talk, please help others discover the podcast by giving us a 5 star rating and a review on iTunes
• Get in touch with feedback and questions @mexfeed on Twitter or email designtalk@mobileuserexperience.com.
• MEX events
• MEX journal

Thanks

• Jukedeck, for the artificial intelligence engine which provided the music