This is the Future of Smartwatches
Gosh, I should have reached for my cellphone instead!
On average, an interaction with a smartwatch takes 6.7 seconds. However, most of the functionality of a watch is far from that 7 seconds reach. For example, anything beyond the app menu of the Apple Watch is useless because the users have to:
- Lift their arm (0.5s)
- Wait for screen to turn on (0.5s)
- Open the app menu (1s)
- Click on the app (1–2s)
- Wait for it to open (1–3s)
Depending on the speed of the watch and the user’s knowledge of the app icon’s location, this might take even more than 7 seconds; this does not even include the navigation inside the app!
Smartwatches have an incredible potential for users to access a wide range of information at a glance. However, their current state does not harness this potential correctly. Apps are not the future of smartwatches. They usually are a bloated package of functionalities mostly useless in a watch context and hidden away behind an app icon. Some apps incorporating simple interactions make sense (such as the Uber app with the single “Request” button), but most are scaled-down smartphone apps.
A watch must be extremely fast and easy to use. It should improve the smartphone experience, not replace it.
When apps are letting us down, there is another glimmer of hope; and it is the watch face. It is the first thing users see when looking at their watch. The information is ready to be read. No interaction needed. However, current smartwatches are not using watch faces to their full potential.
Customizable
Users should be able to decide on the information presented on the watch face. For example, one user might want to see the hour of their next appointment while being able to see their Todoist task count for today (I do). On the other hand, another user might want to see the weather and the number of unread emails from work. There are as many different configurations as there are users.
Pebble attempted to solve this problem by letting developers create their own watch faces. However, this means that a user needs to be lucky enough there’s a developer having the same needs. This same user will also need to switch watch face every time he wants to see different information.
I consider Apple to be the closest on this aspect with the concept of Complications. The Apple Watch faces have small spaces where any widget, fancily named Complications, can be inserted by users. These widgets range from the current weather to the current Streaks status. However, the faces are only made by Apple and the selection is rather small.
The perfect smartwatch UI needs third-party watch faces with customizable widgets. This would let users pick a face to their taste without losing the ability to display the information that is important to them.
Interactive
An interactive watch face is essential for a good smartwatch experience. It unleashes the incredible potential of the small screen and reduces the interaction time.
Because the screen estate is precious on a smartwatch, widgets should only show the most crucial information and provide a way to see more. Users should be able to tap on a widget (or click on a button) to see a new screen with more information related to this widget. This interactivity gives users the maximum information there can be on the screen while keeping interactions under two seconds and freeing up space on the watch face for more widgets. Win-win!
Interactive widgets are also a great playground for extremely short interactions. For example, there could be a button to control intelligent light bulbs directly from the watch face. No need to open a menu: just tap on the widget to trigger the action. There could also be widgets getting bigger to show more UI controls when tapping on them. The possibilities are endless.
Apple seems to have understood this in watchOS 3 by adding new widgets that are simple links to launch apps. Apple knows it has to get rid of the app menu as much as possible. Pebble also had the great idea of making the daily calendar (or, as they name it, Timeline) accessible with only the click of a button.
Forget the App Menu
The future of smartwatches is in watch faces. It is a fast and easy gateway for all watch interactions.
Yes, restricting the experience to one screen puts difficult constraints on the design and limits the number of features. However, developers should take this as an opportunity to clean smartwatches from their bloating features and get smartwatches back to what they are: watches.
This is my first article 📝📝📝 and I hope you enjoyed it!
Constructive comments are highly appreciated!
