Editor’s note: Let’s take a break from all the Apple Watch frenzy. Breathe. And now enjoy a post from Julia, interaction designer extraordinaire, about her favorite wearable. She knows her stuff, having lived with a couple of the early smartwatches for long more than a year.
Among all the smart watch hype, one smart watch stays on a side in a category of its own. While most watches compete to offer more, this watch’s appeal is in offering less.
While most watches try to conquer as broad of a market as possible, this watch only serves its narrowly-targeted market. Most watches struggle to figure out what exactly they are and their purpose in life, this watch has no such self-identity issues.
I am talking about little FiLIP (@MyFilipTech). FiLIP is a smart watch for children.
Why do children need a smart watch?
They probably don’t, but their parents might find the proposition interesting. Many parents do want to stay in touch with their kids during the day, and many kids these days carry around their parents’ old smart phones. Parents expect their little Frodos to carry the powerful devices without giving in to the temptations.
Unfortunately we have witnessed some of the little Frodos turning into little Golums – calling wrong people, looking up wrong stuff, using their phones at a wrong time. FiLIP, a stand-alone phone and GPS locator, lets families to stay in touch without burdening kids with too much power.
FiLIP allows kids to have up to 5 numbers to call, receive calls, and receive text messages from.
FiLIP has 2 buttons. One to make and receive calls, and one to press in case of emergency.
It also shows time 🙂
FiLIP allows parents to see FiLIP’s location (or child’s location if the watch is still on the child’s wrist), set geofenced areas, and remotely add/remove numbers on the watch.
You can read more about FiLIP’s features on their website, and about its usefulness in this review. The point I want to make here about FiLIP, is that, for me, there is a design lesson in it.
I greatly appreciate their narrow design focus and design precision. I hope that more wearables will follow FiLIP’s example.
Perhaps FiLIP still has room for improvement when it comes down to the design details (especially the parent phone app can seriously benefit from some changes), but even at its second itiration the watch is highly functional and appealling to its audience.
As a matter of fact, while everyone else calls any brand of smart watch “Apple Watch,” my son calls any brand of smart watch “FiLIP” so that my Samsung Gear watch becomes “Mom’s FiLIP” and the iWatch is “Apple’s FiLIP.”
I enjoy it when he says that.
We are fond of our little FiLIP.
Interesting perspective. My own son’s (10 yr old) was different. He wants the Apple Watch (he has seen mine) and didn’t like the look of the other watches pitched at kids: “Those are for kids”, was the response. He wants mine. Apple fanboi with iPad Air to match.
I have never heard any complaints from him about eating Brocoli, but boy would I hear it if said he would have to use Windows.
Hah! The question is if he is gonna get it any time soon (Apple Watch, not broccoli)
My 9 year old son asked for an Apple Watch too, probably because he really wants an iPhone for games. I will show him the Filip and see what he says and report back.
As a parent, I love the features of the Filip. The reasons I like it are probably why he wouldn’t like it. Its features are limited to those that keep me in contact with my child. That’s it.