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It's really not *that* complicated is it?

profmjh

profmjh

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 7, 2015
1,734
1,801
UK
Tap the screen, or click the crown, or waggle your arm about yelling "why won't this damn thing turn on": turns the watch on

Swipe up: see Glances - single screens of information from your apps

Swipe left and right: move between screens at that level, e.g. move from one Glance to the next

Swipe down: see Notifications

Force touch: dig deeper into an app, e.g. to change settings

Turn the crown: scrolls the screen up or down; switches between menu options

Click the crown once: [edited] takes you to the home screen, weirdly

Click the crown twice: takes you to the watch face from an app, or back to the app from the watch face

Click and hold the crown: launches Siri

Click pointless button once: see Contacts

Click pointless button twice: see Apple Pay if you're American, get pissed off if you're from any other country in the world (yes, there are other countries)
 
Last edited:
profmatt said:
Tap the screen, or click the crown, or waggle your arm about yelling "why won't this damn thing turn on": turns the watch on

Swipe up: see Glances - single screens of information from your apps

Swipe left and right: move between screens at that level, e.g. move from one Glance to the next

Swipe down: see Notifications

Force touch: dig deeper into an app, e.g. to change settings

Turn the crown: scrolls the screen up or down; switches between menu options

Click pointless button once: see Contacts

Click pointless button twice: see Apple Pay if you're American, get pissed off if you're from any other country in the world (yes, there are other countries)
Click to expand...

Well said. Not brain surgery. Roger that ##
 
People couldn't really figure out the iPhone at first. However, these are the "simple" people as I call them.
 
kovey said:
People couldn't really figure out the iPhone at first. However, these are the "simple" people as I call them.
Click to expand...

Really? My mom is as simple as can be yet she was able to figure out the iPhone on her own. I get questions from her all the time regarding how to work the computer but never the iPhone.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Really? My mom is as simple as can be yet she was able to figure out the iPhone on her own. I get questions from her all the time regarding how to work the computer but never the iPhone.
Click to expand...

My mom (who is 73) is using her iPad now mostly with ease but I had to walk her through features it initially. There are still things I have to remind her about how they work, like search, how to create folders. A few times she's had rotation lock on by mistake and didn't know how to turn it off. For me after using something so long it's hard to remember a time when it wasn't intuitive.
 
I'm pretty sure clicking the crown doesn't select the menu option - when playing around with the demo I remember accidentally pressing the crown down to try and select something, and it sent me to the homescreen. Kind of a "doh!" moment for me, as I had to reopen the app and this time remember to touch it with my finger instead of clicking the crown down.

The crown button is actually a bit disorienting at times to me - sometimes it will send you straight home. Sometimes it will only go back one screen like a back button (the friends list is an example). If you're at the homescreen, it will take you to the watchface.

I also hit the contacts button by accident when wanting to put the watch to sleep - which isn't necessary, I know, but habits take awhile to fight.
 
It only took me about a minute to get the hang of it at an Apple Store. Completely different experience from when I tried the Moto 360 at best buy.
 
The original iPhone was intuitive. My then two-year-old figured out the basics on his own! I don't think the watch is intuitive, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. As long as you can figure it out quickly and it doesn't stay confusing it should be fine.
 
Geniva said:
I also hit the contacts button by accident when wanting to put the watch to sleep - which isn't necessary, I know, but habits take awhile to fight.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing – multiple times! I kept clicking it instead of the Digital Crown. I guess it just "feels" more like a standard, clickable button.
 
It's not. It's just difficult to do in a crowded store. I still managed to navigate around. Once I've had it a day or two it will be a walk in the park.
 
Actually, it *is* that complicated.

I've made three changes to the information about what the digital crown does.
 
profmatt said:
Tap the screen, or click the crown, or waggle your arm about yelling "why won't this damn thing turn on": turns the watch on

Swipe up: see Glances - single screens of information from your apps

Swipe left and right: move between screens at that level, e.g. move from one Glance to the next

Swipe down: see Notifications

Force touch: dig deeper into an app, e.g. to change settings

Turn the crown: scrolls the screen up or down; switches between menu options

Click the crown once: [edited] takes you to the home screen, weirdly

Click the crown twice: takes you to the watch face from an app, or back to the app from the watch face

Click and hold the crown: launches Siri

Click pointless button once: see Contacts

Click pointless button twice: see Apple Pay if you're American, get pissed off if you're from any other country in the world (yes, there are other countries)
Click to expand...

Yes but much like trying to teach a Windows user how to use a Mac (or vice versa, iOS/Android etc) it's understandable that many people will approach the watch as if it were just another iOS device. It doesn't help matters that the button below the digital crown looks like a typical iOS device power button.

I've managed just fine using the watch but I can see how it can be confusing.

EDIT: Did laugh out loud about the Apple Pay, though.
 
I don't think it's that complicated. The behaviors are very familiar to iPhone users. The phone has swipe up and down, swipe side to side through pages. Press the round button, press the round button twice, press and hold the round button. I think people see everything it can do and think it's too much. Which I think it would be too much for people wanting to learn all at once. However, normal people will discover things on their own when the time comes. I don't think they'll be overwhelmed. The phone has similarly discoverable things. Like dragging down to show a search field, or dragging to reload. Swiping on messages to show timestamp. I know many people who literally never use notification center or control center and they get by. Same with multitasking. My mom just discovered it after years of using an iPhone, and then promptly forgot about it because she doesn't need it. The depth is there for people that want it, but most people will only use a small number of features. It's not much different from the iPhone.

profmatt said:
Click the crown once: [edited] takes you to the home screen, weirdly
Click to expand...

Why is this weird?
 
still don't see the point of having ANOTHER button other than the crown.

that itself is just confusing enough.

Also force press doesn't work very well, you have to press and hold it for a couple of seconds before finding out if that even works on that particular screen you are on
 
AdonisSMU said:
Everyone always remebers it like it never was.
Click to expand...

True.

People totally forget that they had to show parents and kids how to get out of "wiggling icon" mode on their first iPhone or iPad. Or how to pinch zoom. Or swipe to delete. Or later, how to make app folders. Or even that the Home button was how you exited an app.

Those were not intuitive things all on their own, because they were new actions. Easily learned, yes, but not intuitive to anyone who had never ever heard of or seen them.

Likewise, people here who are trying out the Apple Watch, go in with certain foreknowledge, such as that the crown is clickable. That's not a traditional action for a crown, and a lot of people would never try it on their own, especially since there's an actual button below it!

Ditto for Force Touch, which is going to confuse a lot of people who have never heard of it, and who will wonder what the heck is going on with their new toy that someone gave them.
 
kingofwale said:
Also force press doesn't work very well, you have to press and hold it for a couple of seconds before finding out if that even works on that particular screen you are on
Click to expand...

Force touch seemed very inconsistent on the couple of demo watches I tried. Didn't seem to always work and the length of the hold seemed inconsistent. Hopefully this is just because these are demos and the shipping watches will have been fine tuned for this.

I also found myself swiping up/down from screens other than the watch face because on my iPhone I am used to swiping down for notifications and up for control panel on every screen.
 
One has to remember that the watch face "app" is the main feature of the watch. It's from here you have your glances and the immediate information you need. I'm actually not quite sure if third party apps on the watch would have been necessary at all. Loading an application is a bit tedious and probably takes more time then the 5-10 seconds of use Apple is aiming for.

I haven't tried it yet, so I might be talking out of my ass. But Gruber did have some interesting thoughts on the watch face.
 
kingofwale said:
still don't see the point of having ANOTHER button other than the crown.

that itself is just confusing enough.
Click to expand...
I agree that the contact button is really hard to understand.

As a iPhone user, this kind of button is expected to switch on or off the screen (which can be useful to save even more battery).

That would have been more useful.

I don't understand they have given such an important button to contacts : I don't think most people will really use their watch to call or text their friends (especialy on a device where there's no keyboard)
 
kmj2318 said:
Why is this weird?
Click to expand...

Because I would expect it to select the current menu item. It scrolls like a mouse, but it doesn't click like a mouse.

----------
Plx32 said:
I agree that the contact button is really hard to understand.
Click to expand...

I wonder if Apple's control freakery will allow us one day to set the button to whatever we want it to do. I'm reassured other people can't really see the point of it. I won't be using it at all if all I can do is look at my contacts. I won't be originating messages or calls from my watch.
 
I just can't get my head around the "side button." On a watch with only two physical buttons, we don't need one of them dedicated to selecting contacts. Given the confusion a lot of people have about navigation it would seem make more sense to have the side button be analogous to the home button, toggling between the watch face and the apps screen, while the digital crown was used just for scrolling/selecting.
 
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