Apple Needs A Wake Up Call

Figure 1(Left): The simple alarm interface. Figure 2(Right): The automatic 9 minute snooze.

Apple’s alarm screen interface has often frustrated me. As seen in Figure 1, it is a simple interface with only two buttons, but the issue is that the condition of the user must be taken into account. The user has just woken up, often tired and not wearing glasses if they need them, and so it is very easy for them to not look where they are tapping and accidentally turn the alarm off. Furthermore, and this is what I consider to be the worst part of the interface, a common reaction to waking up to this alarm would be to simply press the home button on the phone, as this is the main button. However, this press actually turns the alarm off, which is often a problem as if the person is tired, they can easily fall back asleep with nothing to wake them.

While accidentally turning the alarm clock off is an issue, snoozing is also frustrating. There is no option, whether it be while creating or snoozing the alarm, for the user to specify how long they wish the snooze to be. Rather, the alarm defaults to snoozing for 9 minutes, as seen in Figure 2. Usually, and I know my roommates do the same, I hate waking up to the alarm going off immediately and so I will snooze upto three times depending on how tired I am. However, with no way to set the snooze duration, this would make me wake up almost 30 minutes late. Thus, if a user wishes to snooze multiple times, they must set their initial alarm to be earlier, which is frustrating as well.

Apple has always found ways to develop sleek yet simple interfaces, so it can be seen why this interface was made like this. With only one big button for snooze and one small button for stop, Apple even recognizes the idea that a user would rather accidentally snooze than stop. The company prioritized efficiency and accessibility with only having these two buttons, but concurrently this forced them to partly sacrifice memorability because it is difficult for a user to react correctly to an alarm every time. Rather, in the moment the user wakes, they will usually do the same thing every time, whether it be tapping on the phone screen or pressing the home button. Apple may have overestimated the learnability and memorability of some users, as even now I press the button forgetting that it turns the alarm off since I am not always thinking about this when I wake up. Thus, I propose that Apple develops a new solution users can only snooze by pressing the snooze button, but any other action including pressing home button prompts the user to enter their passcode. Until this passcode is entered, the alarm will not stop, which forces the user to either snooze or consciously turn the alarm off instead of accidentally.

With snoozing, Apple must have prioritized efficiency and researched that 9 minutes is the ideal snooze. Once a user has slept for an extra 9 minutes and checks the time, they will often realize that they must get up, which is a good design choice since the intended audience has a need to wake up. However, this still does not explain why Apple does not provide an option to set the snooze time while creating the alarm. This increases personalization and does not stress the time or effort constraints on Apple’s side since this option is easy to create. Thus, this is another proposed change in order to perfect Apple’s alarm screen interface.