I own a Onewheel XR+.
I ride it almost every day, and it is the closest thing I’ve felt to perfection when it comes to human-computer interaction. Why?
I have always been an avid rider of things, which has led me to try a multitude of options for my daily commute to the office. Fixed-gear bicycles, road bicycles, electric scooters, e-bikes, electric longboards, skateboards, hoverboards, you name it. I’ve tried a lot of them.
While I still love the bicycle, especially a fixed gear one where your legs, crankarms, and the wheel are constantly connected to one another, the Onewheel strikes a near-perfect balance of autonomy and automation. Let me explain.
Other electric vehicles, like e-bikes, electric scooters, and electric longboard, all have one thing in common. The throttle. Sure, e-bikes arguably have another mode of providing electrical power to the vehicle, but in practice, pedaling on them becomes much like pressing on a throttle.
When you lose touch of the mechanism in which your vehicle moves back and forth, i.e. abstracted away to a throttle that you press with your thumb, it becomes very easy for you to also lose a connection with the vehicle’s response in relation to its power delivery, and the environment. This is why it is so easy to spot mindless speeding on electric scooters and longboards—they do not sense a direct consequence of their speed to the potential for risk.
The Onewheel on the other hand, moves forward if you move forward, moves backward if you move backward, and moves left or right depending on your lean. In other words, it is very similar to the way you walk or run, but just in a different mode. And because you don’t have fancy suspension to cover up the imperfections of the road, you are directly aware of what effect the environment has on the board’s movement, and again, the potential for risk. It provides automation—traveling at speeds you wouldn’t be capable of just by feet—but also autonomy—a direct sense of control over the actions of the vehicle.
I try to think about my interaction with my Onewheel when I think about ideal interactions between humans and computers.