Apple really sweated the launching of the Vision Pro . It lend choice retail employee to Cupertino for multi - day training sessions in which participants try the hardware and memorized the script to be used while demonstrating the hardware in computer storage . Those participants then went back to their Apple Stores and taught their co - doer what they had learned .
When the doors give on launching mean solar day , the demonstration seemed to go pretty well . But it turns out that the Vision Pro is perhaps the most ergonomically complicated equipment Apple has ever made – catch it to agree on an array of face requires more than a great choice of Light Seal sizes and a fancy app that scans your font .
get a good tantrum for the Vision Pro , it reverse out , takes a human tactile sensation . And on this front , Apple has failed its retail employee and its customers alike .
The Light Seal–the big gray band that sits between your face and the main Vision Pro unit–is crucial to a proper experience.
Lost in the details
From thefirst timeI put on the Vision Pro , I never could get Optic ID to mold quite right . I could n’t set it up to work for the longest time , and when I ultimately did , using it to unlock the equipment only work sporadically . After let the cat out of the bag to friends about it , I started to wonder if the issue was that my Vision Pro ’s Light Seal was too self-aggrandizing . I re - scan my look , only to reveal that the Apple Store app no longer recommended my original size–24W – but a newfangled size , 21W.
I make up one’s mind to go into my local Apple Store to see if I could exchange the Light Seal . The people in the computer memory were incredibly squeamish , but it quickly became apparent that they were n’t really convinced in how this appendage was going to work . I was told that the stock was deal out of sizing 21W but that I could go through a sizing procedure with a squad member so as to figure out if that was the proper size for me .
This makes sensory faculty . What better than me try on Light Seals in the store until I found the correct fit ?
The Light Seal–the big gray band that sits between your face and the main Vision Pro unit–is crucial to a proper experience.
But that ’s not what happened . The Apple Store employee who would be leading me through my fitting had me use the app to measure my face again – and again , 21W was the winner . He went over to a drawer and wreak back a sampling 21W for me to test , and … it seemed ok ? But without wearing it for a few hours , I would n’t really have it off – and I could n’t take it home since they were sell out and this was the demo model .
Worse , though , is that I also was n’t offered other Light Seals to liken and contrast , or call for questions about my fit . I did n’t get the sense that the person I was working with knew anything about fitting someone properly . The experience was very friendly , but also quite underwhelming . It ’s strong for me to fault an Apple employee for being poorly direct . I blame his employer .
The Light Seal – the swelled gray dance band that sit between your face and the independent Vision Pro unit – is all-important to a proper experience .
For the Vision Pro shopping experience, Apple needs to take cues from its Apple Watch launch.
Apple
My store charge me home to see about convert my Light Seal online . But Apple ’s support internet site would n’t let me enter in 21W , the sizing I had appraise twice and tried on . Instead , the situation insist on asking me a serial publication of questions about how the Vision Pro fit on my face , many of them regarding things I had absolutely no legal opinion on . I eventually figured out that if I clicked around in different decree , I could get offered unlike sizes of Light Seal . So while I could n’t just say , “ Send me the size of it I want , ” I could try out to game the arrangement . It should n’t be this way .
It does n’t aid that Apple has named the Light Seal sizes in a way that makes it hard for anyone — include Apple Store employees — to understand . Did you know , for example , that the first fingerbreadth in the Light Seal sizing apparently refers to the balance between your forehead and os zygomaticum ? A “ 1 ” is for protruding foreheads , a “ 3 ” is for protruding cheekbones , and “ 2 ” is for in - betweeners . This name sense , because I did eventually try a 14W Light Seal and it killed my jugal bone . all out of balance .
I larn this tidbit about size from a source in Apple Retail who only learned it recently . While Apple flew retail envoys to Cupertino for demo recitation , fund employees have been given a couple of handouts about meet Vision Pro to customer .
Lessons of the Apple Watch
I ’m not sure what top to Apple ’s decision to focus on arduous - sell demos ( for a pricey 1.0 product ! ) while seemingly not give the right attending to agree the Vision Pro , but I ’ve cause a few guesses . Clearly the society decided to put its faith in an app that scan your expression in order of magnitude to find the right fit , and perhaps that was misdirect . It ’s a good start , but it ’s not going to be enough on its own – take it from the guy who got two dissimilar results from the app .
For the Vision Pro shopping experience , Apple want to take clew from its Apple Watch launching .
Think back to the launch of the Apple Watch . Apple retail was deeply focused on a essay - on experience with different bands and materials . It was perhaps a lesson learned by former Retail chiefAngela Ahrendtsfrom her twelvemonth in luxury retail , but it imply you could make an assignment , seat down at a table , and have an Apple Store employee walk you through your options .
The Vision Pro experience could ’ve been like that – and indeed , it likely take to be vamp to be that . Because it turn out that it can be exceedingly difficult to match , with issues many customer have never even consider ? ( I , for one , have never spend any time reflecting on the balance wheel between my cheekbone and my frontal bone , let alone the right adjustment of a band to hold a heavy headset on my facial expression with comfort . )
Instead , it feels like Apple built a measurement tool into an app and figured that would be good enough . It ’s not .
What’s next for Vision Pro?
Apple seems attached to Vision Pro and visionOS for the long catch . I can take over that maybe Apple did n’t anticipate all of the complexity of fitting client with the gadget before it launched , but now is the time to take example from the launch and apply them to the next wave of Vision Pro client .
The top priority is good grooming for retail employees when it fall to fitting . get them to memorize a demo script is great , but the finish should be to have every customer leave the store with sureness that their Vision Pro is going to fit properly . When a client comes in complaining of set issues , storage employees should be able to diagnose the issuing and offer unlike options to correct the problem .
Apple should also formally expand the amount of sentence a Vision Pro vendee has to interchange their Light Seals for a dissimilar size . I think it ’s still technically 14 day , but it can be difficult for busy people to get to an Apple Store in time , and it can take sentence for a customer to agnize that they might not be using the right size of it .
Apple also needs to allow exploiter to explicitly choose a unlike size when exchange their Light Seals online . I was n’t able-bodied to get a substitute in my store , and while I knew the size I was suppose to get , I could n’t enter it anywhere . ( To Apple ’s credit , when I did order a replacement , the company ship it to me free of armorial bearing and when it did n’t fit , took it right back . That was impressive service . )
Finally , Apple call for to demystify what the different sizes of Light Seal actually intend – for employees and customers likewise . This should n’t be a swap secret . Right now , it feel like Apple desire to keep things obscure so that it can coerce people into its measurement feature in the Apple Store app or walk through the determination tree on its support pages . I translate why those might be preferred outcomes , but it ’s not dish up anyone for Light Seal sizes to becompiled on Redditrather than being transparently disclosed on Apple ’s own site .
If all die as Apple hopes , the number of mass who have bought a Vision Pro will be a tiny fraction of the entire foresighted - term visionOS drug user base . First - contemporaries product in new categories are bound to uncover all form of unexpected issue – I get it . But here we are . It ’s time for Apple to reprioritize fit and comfort , even if it means a trivial less time spent making sure the in - store demo patter is correct .
