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Just noticed the scrollbar changes color depending how you scroll
- Thread starter AppleWatchGuy
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Because they are Apple. Attention to detail is outstanding on some things. Lacking on others.
That is a weird one... doesn't seem to convey any useful information. Usually their attention to detail serves some clever purpose, but I can't think what this would be.
The green color indicates which part of the interface the crown is controlling. When customizing a watch face, the green highlight indicates which complication is being changed. When setting a timer, the green highlight will be around either the hours or the minutes field, without this highlight, the user has no indication whether hours or minutes will be changed before they turn the crown, so this is important information in some cases, not so much for just plain scrolling though.
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This is true for the green outline around a complication, or for example the brightness or haptic feedback "sliders"
However, I think the OP was talking about the vertical scroll bar in the top right being a different colour depending if you are scrolling with the crown or not.
That's what the pic implies anyway.
And that's what he was saying - that whatever the digital crown is controlling highlights in green. That appears to apply whether it's a watch face customization or scrolling a screen.
Seeing as how I'm in processing hell, somebody with a watch can confirm if this shows up in other first party apps or not.
Good catch, Simonx314
It seems a green box always indicates the element is adjustable with the crown, but the inverse is not always true, crown-adjustable elements do not always have a green box. For example, I just checked the built-in Workouts app, and you can adjust your calorie/time goal with the crown, but this element does not have a green box around it, presumably for aesthetics.
Until later this year, 3rd-party apps can not use the digital crown, although the operating system will automatically scroll long content with the crown, but the developer does not control this. Therefore, there is no opportunity for a 3rd-party developer to create an element that can be adjusted with the crown, so they can't participate in consistently using the green box as a clue. But there is nothing preventing a 3rd-party developer from creating an element with a green box around it just to confuse people, and I don't see anything in Apple's guidelines about when and when not to use green boxes. We should learn more at Apple's developer conference next month, Apple will probably reveal how developers can use the crown, guidelines, and any restrictions.
Until later this year, 3rd-party apps can not use the digital crown, although the operating system will automatically scroll long content with the crown, but the developer does not control this. Therefore, there is no opportunity for a 3rd-party developer to create an element that can be adjusted with the crown, so they can't participate in consistently using the green box as a clue. But there is nothing preventing a 3rd-party developer from creating an element with a green box around it just to confuse people, and I don't see anything in Apple's guidelines about when and when not to use green boxes. We should learn more at Apple's developer conference next month, Apple will probably reveal how developers can use the crown, guidelines, and any restrictions.
You know some developer is itching to bring the game of Pong to the watch. The digital crown would be the perfect controller. And then you would drain your battery and overtax your crown. But you would be playing PONG on your Watch!
I think there needs to be some balance, we can't have every UI element that is controllable by the crown be green. That would be too distracting. So I guess they use it sparingly only when there's a need to call out the attention of the user.