The world doesn’t need another gadget vying for attention; it needs technology that steps back and lets people live. Will Wang, whose journey spans continents and tech giants, has made this idea central to Even Realities‘ smart glasses. After rising through the ranks at Apple, where he led engineering efforts on next-generation human interface technologies, Wang founded his own company with a contrarian vision: start with what makes great eyewear, then carefully embed the intelligence. In a market crowded with flashy experiments and entertainment-first approaches, Wang’s philosophy is refreshingly restrained, grounded in the elegant traditions of eyewear craftsmanship and powered by invisible intelligence that activates only when needed.
The result is the G1 series, smart glasses that look and feel like premium eyewear because that’s exactly what they are. Wang’s unique background, bridging Eastern pragmatism with Western innovation, has shaped a product that prioritizes presence over performance specs, comfort over complexity. From material choices that ensure all-day wearability to battery systems designed around human rhythms rather than charging cycles, every decision reflects a deeper understanding of how technology should serve daily life. We sat down with Wang to explore how he and his team are quietly redefining the rules of wearable technology, one thoughtful design choice at a time.
Yanko Design: Welcome to Yanko Design! It could be great to start from what glasses mean to you, and how you found yourself in the smart glasses world.
Will Wang: I’ve worn glasses my whole life – I have quite a strong prescription, so they’ve always been more than an accessory to me. They represent more of a tool that transforms how I see the world. At a certain point in my career, I started wondering – if glasses can already change your life that much, what happens if we make them even more capable? That’s how Even Realities began – not by trying to add technology to your face, but by enhancing something that’s already deeply human and familiar. We started from the existing tool and asked ourselves how technology could make them even more powerful.
Yanko Design: The Even Realities G1 has a fairly large cultural value that most people don’t know. For example, I noticed a few keynote speakers (especially for TED) wearing the glasses to replace cue cards and teleprompters. What do you think makes them so popular amongst professionals?
Will Wang: I believe talented people are drawn to tools that can add to their lives without distracting them from their final goal. And they also want control. Even G1 offers exactly that. Public speaking is a good example. Teleprompters are painful for a lot of speakers – having one subtly integrated into your glasses, without anybody noticing, means added confidence and more focus on delivering a great speech. But that’s not it – we embedded a series of capabilities that can help in several other occasions: live translations, speech transcription, quick notes – all extremely powerful tools to elevate the day-to-day. With G1, they also get control. Information appears in front of you when you need it, gone when you don’t. That ability to be more natural, more connected – that’s why people love them.
Yanko Design: Talking about the cultural value, a lot of what makes the G1 so remarkable is that it truly looks like an ordinary pair of sleek spectacles. How did you balance the need for lightweight frames with the demands of electronics and battery?
Will Wang: That balance was probably one of the hardest parts. We started from the shape and proportions of real eyewear, not from the technology. Our goal was to stay true to the original tool – a pair of display smart glasses that are light, feel good to the touch, and respect eyewear design. We knew that we had to design Even G1 so it’s the first thing you wear in the morning and the last you take off before going to bed. It was hard, and we are certainly not done, but I believe we achieved our goal. Also, Even G1 can be purchased with the highest quality prescription lenses – something we had to achieve if we want to credibly represent the true evolution of traditional spectacles.
Yanko Design: What are the most important ingredients that make a pair of smart glasses truly “invisible” in daily life?
Will Wang: Three things: comfort, discretion, and relevance. Comfort so you forget you’re wearing them. Discretion so they don’t scream about themselves – no lights, no cameras, no sounds, no chunky designs. A quiet tool that blends with your personality. And relevance, so what appears in your view always feels timely and useful, never intrusive. When those three align, technology becomes invisible.
Yanko Design: You mentioned no cameras or sounds. There’s a lot of discussion in the industry about what a pair of smart glasses should feature – cameras, speakers, mono or multi HUDs. Why did you decide against including cameras or external speakers in the G1?
Will Wang: Because not everything that’s possible is necessary. We didn’t want to create a surveillance tool or a mini entertainment system. Our belief is that technology should respect both your space and the people around you. So no cameras that make a conversation feel uncomfortable, no external audio that takes you out of the moment. An interface that feels just yours – intentional and human.
Yanko Design: There’s also “designing for presence,” a term used by Even Realities that I think our readers would love to understand better.
Will Wang: Presence is what happens when you’re fully engaged in the moment – not half in your phone, not half in entertainment. When we design for presence, we ask: does this feature keep you connected to the real world, or pull you away from it? Our goal is always the former. We are building technology that enhances your day-to-day instead of replacing it.
Yanko Design: Where do you think Even Realities has the edge over the rest of the market? What makes you truly proud?
Will Wang: We’re not chasing short-term fame or giving false promises. At Even Realities, we believe in a quieter form of technology that rejects noise – not just the literal noise of notifications and alerts, but the noise of tech that demands to be seen and felt at all times. Instead, our products are built to integrate softly into people’s lives. They don’t compete with your personality – they complement it. They’re designed with intention, and respect for human attention. Quiet doesn’t mean passive. It means intelligent, elegant, and purposeful. I’m proud that G1 feels like a natural extension of you, not a piece of hardware on your face.
Yanko Design: How do you define the boundary between helpful information and overload for someone wearing G1? I ask because other rivals in this space have put a lot of effort on interactions around image recognition, messaging, and content consumption, but it looks like you kept it to the core functional needs.
Will Wang: That’s exactly the distinction we wanted to make. At Even Realities, we believe that more information isn’t always better – especially when it’s right in front of your eyes. The goal was never to fill your field of view with notifications or messages. We wanted to design something that respects your attention – that surfaces what truly matters in the moment, and then gets out of the way. So instead of trying to replicate your phone on your face, we focused on essential, functional interactions that enhance your experience rather than compete with it – things like navigation, translations, sensitive notifications configured by you, and an AI assistant. It’s about utility over novelty. That’s what defines the boundary for us – technology that feels invisible until you need it.
Yanko Design: And if you could embed one new capability into eyewear, without any constraint, what would it be and why?
Will Wang: Making the lenses capable of autofocusing and dynamically adjusting prescriptions would be a game changer. That way, people’s vision could be greatly heightened – personalized and adaptive in real time.
Yanko Design: Finally, for our enthusiastic designers, can you leave us with a few industrial and interface design secrets or tips that you think are important in the category?
Will Wang: Nothing new, but I believe technology needs to go back to where it started – improving people’s lives. Start from the human, not the hardware. And remember: the most advanced interface is still the one you barely notice.
The post Will Wang Left Apple to Build Smart Glasses That Feel Invisible. Here’s Why. first appeared on Yanko Design.