Today, I gave my 2nd presentation, How To Disrupt Legal Disruptors, via the Wolters Kluwer GPO Presents series on the topic: wearables and legal services. Calling it a challenge is putting it mildly because I’m very skeptical. Is it possible to dwarf legal products down to a 1.26 inch screen? It would certainly not be a legal research product which deserves nothing but the biggest surface to comfortably exercise, right?
Walking with Bondrew
I’d like to take a shot at cracking this wearable paradigm. First I’ll try to envision a user which would be this fancy futuristic legal professional using the latest gadgets for real. I haven’t been around any professionals lately who would fit this profile. After taking a long walk, it dawned on me that I could use my favorite fictitious figure for argument’s sake.
Standing Still
Then, I started looking at situations and use cases when I realised: wearables like Glass, goggles, wrist bands and watches are used mostly outdoors. Contrary to smartphones they will likely have far less screen time from a user. While we are mostly glued to our tablets or smartphone, wearables will only be offered a quick glance in the most urgent or leisurely moments. So what can you tell your customer when you only have a split second? After I ran out of ideas, I attempted a shelved utopian concept called DESH: a cross between Google Now and legal practice management.
Walking Dead
I slowly became aware that these limitations actually offer us some ordinary benefits which we may have lost in this race to immerse. We maybe getting back eye contact and the occasional, still annoying, watch checking wrist gestures. Yet, we will be more social offline and may carry a conversation more naturally.
Resurrect
I digress and for good reason because I still haven’t found the “killer app.” The one that has stripped a legal product from all content and visualizations and reduced it to bare data and numbers. Maybe somebody will prove me wrong in the not too distant future. I know of at least one innovative legal service in Africa which did crack the 1.26 inch screen. Yet I don’t despair because maybe the world would be better off without the killer app…for now.