Glances UI only from watch face screen?

[BD1]

I played around with the demo station at an apple store today. I like the glances feature but it seems like the swipe up gesture only works from the watch face? Not from the home/app screen or when actually using an app?

I kept wanting to pull up glances from any screen like turning on the control panel on an iPhone.

I didn't play around with the Notifications as much (swipe down). Do you need to be on the watch face to pull down notifications?

Overall I like the watch and have preordered it but the UI seemed like it had a few extra button presses/swipes, etc. to move around. I know some of this is learning curve with a small device where trade-offs had to be made.

So it seems like you have to press the digital crown and then swipe up/down and that there were more taps/presses/swipes than felt intuitive. I need to go try it again as I just spent a few minutes with it, maybe I missed something with the UI.

 

[dylman]

The reviews I've read say the same thing. You nee to be on the watch face to see glances. To be fair, that's where you'll spend most of your time using the watch - it is a watch after all.

 

[The Doctor11]

I noticed this too! Don't think I like it.

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOk_qt_p2Xk

 

[Cory Bauer]

The reviews I've read say the same thing. You nee to be on the watch face to see glances. To be fair, that's where you'll spend most of your time using the watch - it is a watch after all.

Which is why it's so confusing that Apple refers to the App Cluster as the home screen. They should have called it the Launch Pad.

 

[BD1]

Which is why it's so confusing that Apple refers to the App Cluster as the home screen. They should have called it the Launch Pad.

Yes.

You can swipe up/down from the iPhone home screen but not the watch screen? Why?

 

[cwosigns]

Yes.

You can swipe up/down from the iPhone home screen but not the watch screen? Why?

I can see their logic. On a watch, the clock IS the home/default screen. Accessing the app cluster is more akin to opening a folder.

The problem is, not everyone's brain is wired the same.

 

[BD1]

I can see their logic. On a watch, the clock IS the home/default screen. Accessing the app cluster is more akin to opening a folder.

The problem is, not everyone's brain is wired the same.

I understand.

I just watched the getting to know your watch video and realized that one thing missing for the appointment demos is you can't raise your wrist to activate the watch (which turns on the watch face). So now it makes more sense. You raise your wrist and the have the watch face and can quickly get to glances/notifications.

 

[wesk702]

Yes.

You can swipe up/down from the iPhone home screen but not the watch screen? Why?

Cause at the home screen, swiping in any direction moves all the icons. With so little screen real estate, swiping up and having two different actions(move icons/glances) can be confusing and easy to perform the wrong function.

 

[Mascots]

I can see their logic. On a watch, the clock IS the home/default screen. Accessing the app cluster is more akin to opening a folder.

The problem is, not everyone's brain is wired the same.

I was thinking it was pinned to the Watch app because those gestures are then freed up for other apps. Since there is so little space, taking out any action removes a lot of interactivity within apps and since it pretty much eliminates swipe up and swipe down of any kind. You'd be at the edge when you started almost every time without a steady hand (especially after wearing the 38mm in person)

A good example is in the Activity App: you use left and right swipes to flip between types of activity, but you swipe up to show detailed graphs and then swipe back down to go back to the ring UI. Though you could potentially put the Glances and NC there, the room for tolerance is pretty low, probably within a cm.

 

[Cory Bauer]

I can see their logic. On a watch, the clock IS the home/default screen. Accessing the app cluster is more akin to opening a folder.

The problem is, not everyone's brain is wired the same.

Problem is Apple's making the issue worse for themselves; in their own marketing and in-store digital signage they're referring to the App Cluster as the "Home Screen". If the App Cluster animated in over top of everything else, like when activating LaunchPad on OS X, no one would be confused about why the can't activate glances or notifications from there. Also, people (and reviewers did this a lot) wouldn't keep trying to go BACK to the App Cluster like you do the iPhone home screen.

 

[Rogifan]

I can understand why that might be confusing and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some UI changes based on feedback. Though I can also understand Apple wanting the experience to be more push than pull and the app launcher/home screen is definitely pull.

On Twitter someone asked John Gruber what changed most about his opinions on day 1 vs today and he responded: "the coherence of the system interaction design". I'll be interested to read his part 2 review. I do wonder though how objective he can be knowing his feelings about Kevin Lynch. You can tell it still seems to bother him that Apple hired Lynch. Even though he did admit that Steve Jobs tried to poach Lynch at one point.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Which is why it's so confusing that Apple refers to the App Cluster as the home screen. They should have called it the Launch Pad.

Just be happy they didn't call it the Insect Compound Eyes screen...

You can swipe up/down from the iPhone home screen but not the watch screen? Why?

Probably because they felt users would get annoyed if their glances and notifications keep popping into view all the time as people swipe around their home screens or apps.

As the watch screen doesn't involve other forms of touchscreen activity, saving glances to that interface makes sense. The watch has a very small touchscreen, it'd be easy to make the user experience needlessly fiddly if you had to actively avoid bringing up glances while swiping around, especially if you're say, riding a bus, or are walking around etc.

 

[profets]

Cause at the home screen, swiping in any direction moves all the icons. With so little screen real estate, swiping up and having two different actions(move icons/glances) can be confusing and easy to perform the wrong function.

This.

I tried it today, and haven't really seen it mentioned, but notifications and glances can be invoked from anywhere on the screen - not specifically from sliding down from the top (notifications) or up from the bottom edge (glances). You just need to do an upward motion for glances or downward motion for notifications.

 

[matrix07]

I played around with the demo station at an apple store today. I like the glances feature but it seems like the swipe up gesture only works from the watch face? Not from the home/app screen or when actually using an app?

I kept wanting to pull up glances from any screen like turning on the control panel on an iPhone.

I didn't play around with the Notifications as much (swipe down). Do you need to be on the watch face to pull down notifications?

Overall I like the watch and have preordered it but the UI seemed like it had a few extra button presses/swipes, etc. to move around. I know some of this is learning curve with a small device where trade-offs had to be made.

So it seems like you have to press the digital crown and then swipe up/down and that there were more taps/presses/swipes than felt intuitive. I need to go try it again as I just spent a few minutes with it, maybe I missed something with the UI.

Basically, it's the watch and the watch face is your Home Screen now. I agree that something like Glances should be accessed in every places though.

 

[betabeta]

I noticed this too! Don't think I like it.

Yeah, it's early, let's hope for lots of good updates and fast