Repurposing The Apple Watch’s Side Button

To me, one of the best parts of the Apple Watch is the health and fitness tracking that it provides. I know it sounds gimmicky, but getting all three rings filled by the end of the day is really rewarding. And for someone who is as competitive as I am, not getting all three rings isn’t something I take lightly. So I try to workout as frequently as I can, and the workout app is a great companion to the activity one. After completing a workout, it’s nice to see my workout reflected in the activity app on my iPhone. From there I can see my splits, distance, heart rate, etc. It may not have all the bells and whistles of other workout apps, but it’s just fine for me.

However, with working out comes sweat, which makes the Apple Watch harder to use. Throw rain into the mix, and you’ve got yourself an unresponsive display. This is the problem that I encountered today when I was on my run. It had started to rain just as I was finishing up my run, and as I finished, I spent about a good 30 seconds fidgeting with the display to end my workout. The display wasn’t responding to my finger because of all the excess moisture on the screen. And my shirt couldn’t wipe it dry because it too was wet. I’ve also encountered the dreaded “end workout prematurely” button. You know, when you go to hit pause, but you accidentally hit end? The screen is just too cluttered during a workout, and sometimes moisture on the screen causes you to hit the wrong button, or no buttons at all. This got me thinking that there has to be a better way.

When Apple introduced the Apple Watch, they highlighted the lock button looking button as a way to bring up friends. The touted features such as “digital touch” or “tap to send your heartbeat.” Outside of the first couple days of having of having my watch, I’ve never really used them. And the only time I hit that button is on accident. In fact I use Apple Pay on my watch multiple times a week, and I have to double click to activate that, where I have to only single click to activate something I rarely use. To me, the Apple Watch would benefit greatly from reprioritizing how many clicks opens what feature. And I also think that giving developers access, or at the very least the workout apps, to the side button would be incredibly beneficial. Now I no longer have to force touch the screen and hope to God I hit the right button. I can simply press the side button, my workout will pause, and then I can tap it again to resume. I still want Apple Pay as a double click, and then lets move the friends page to a triple click during workouts. Because honestly, if you’re making a phone call while working out, you’re not working out hard enough.

From a user-experience point of view, I know that this violates some rule that states that a universally accessible button should have the same action everywhere. However, I think that this is a prime example of when the user experience of the workout app would greatly benefit from breaking that rule. Having a side button to pause a workout is much more in line with what a traditional stopwatch has, and a user can control their workout without relying on a dry screen. No more added time to workouts, no more premature workout endings, and most of all enhanced safety. Users no longer have to look down at their watch to pause a workout. They can do this entirely while focusing on what is in front of them.