a few key interface and tech decisions in Apple’s launch of VisionOS (and new device) help set a new bit for the future of immersive experiences when it comes to engagement, identity, and creativity.
Initial thoughts:

No accessories required, just gestures. I was impressed by the design constraints of gesture-based controls, and believe these natural controls will unlock a level of simplicity by helping people succeed with the new technology just by acting natural.

Human empathy-driven features drive mainstream comfort - and ultimately adoption. It’s early days, and most hot takes right now are “wow, nice pair of goggles, Apple!,” but there were some very deliberate and technologically challenging decisions made in both the hardware and software design that should engender a positive relationship between people and this new device. These decisions will ultimately drive adoption. For example, being able to see a representation of a person’s eyes when they are in an augmented reality mode (and a different animation when not), or being able to see and manually adjust the edges of your real-world peripheral vision when in a virtual space. There are a few other nuances that will break down some barriers of isolation and discomfort from removing yourself from the real world.

Privacy & Readiness for Persistent Real-time Authenticated Commerce: Apple shared some detail on the benefits of iris recognition for security (preventing unauthorized access to your content…and world), and alluded to the ability to buy things with your eyes. If you think about the prospects of knowing EXACTLY who is using a device (not just who authenticated or gave access with a passcode, but literally the person who is using the device with 100% accuracy), you can imagine a literally frictionless experiences for commerce. If you go into a store wearing one of these devices, you should be able to just grab stuff and walk out without any check-out process - and this goes for both virtual stores (of course) as well as physical stores. Truly being able to “buy with your eyes” with persistent real-time identity verification unlocks all sorts of capabilities like paying by the minute to watch movies or play games, and commerce funnels could become a step-function more efficient.

Virtual representation of you, perhaps accessorizable if not portable. Mike Rockwell talked about the depth mapping performed by new devices for a user’s face. This scan creates a three-dimensional version of you that represents your identity to others that you may encounter in FaceTime, games, or other third-party applications (I suspect). This is significant because Apple will manage the avatars that represent many of us in immersive experiences, and will have the opportunity to accessorize these avatars with sanctioned objects to amp up our digital fashion.

Advanced texture, material, and 3D creation applications will become widely adopted for the immersive era. Every company in the world will need to have their product catalog if not their entire once-2D experience available to current and prospective customers within 3D immersive experiences. Just look at Disney, for starters. They now face an era where they seek to bring their theme park experiences, media streaming applications, and entirely new forms of engagement into every customer’s home - and field of view. Every furniture company will want to have virtual immersive showrooms where customers can browse and inspect every inch of their merchandise before a purchase (with their eyes!). To make all of this happen, every object needs to be captured or sculpted, made photo-realistic with textures and materials, rendered, animated for engagement, and possibly even personalized. At Adobe, the Substance 3D collection is one of our fastest growing businesses, and we’ve seen some early pick-up of these products by leading e-commerce and media companies that “get it.” But I expect we are still in the very early days.

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