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Oh no...Digital Crown scrolling is backwards!

N

nathanjbrown

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 9, 2008
265
57
Santa Barbara, CA
I was just watching the Guided Tours on apple.com and something jumped out at me immediately: scrolling with the Digital Crown in the messages app (and elsewhere, I imagine) is backwards. The user in the video is rotating the Digital Crown clockwise (up) to scroll down.

For the attention to detail and expertise Apple brings to new products, this kind of crap annoys me. It makes sense when touching the screen. Hell, I can even let it go when Apple brought the same mindset to trackpads (although I immediately changed that setting). But rotating a physical object in the opposite direction of scrolling makes no sense.

Let's hope for a "switch to flip" in the Watch's settings menu.
 
nathanjbrown said:
I was just watching the Guided Tours on apple.com and something jumped out at me immediately: scrolling with the Digital Crown in the messages app (and elsewhere, I imagine) is backwards. The user in the video is rotating the Digital Crown clockwise (up) to scroll down.

For the attention to detail and expertise Apple brings to new products, this kind of crap annoys me. It makes sense when touching the screen. Hell, I can even let it go when Apple brought the same mindset to trackpads (although I immediately changed that setting). But rotating a physical object in the opposite direction of scrolling makes no sense.

Let's hope for a "switch to flip" in the Watch's settings menu.
Click to expand...

How it is makes more sense, you are "pushing" the content around the display.

It makes sense on the trackpad, and it makes sense on the watch.

Perhaps they will give you the option to invert it, like they do on the Mac though. You can't please everyone.
 
Seems natural to me. I see it as a paper scroll. You spin the wheel up and the paper moves up. <shrug>
 
jabingla2810 said:
How it is makes more sense, you are "pushing" the content around the display.

It makes sense on the trackpad, and it makes sense on the watch.

Perhaps they will give you the option to invert it, like they do on the Mac though. You can't please everyone.
Click to expand...

I think this is going to be VERY subjective. For example, sliding my finger up on a touch screen makes a lot of sense to make the content move down, like on an iPhone/iPad etc. However, for my Magic Trackpad, I do NOT like moving my fingers up to make the page move down. I reverse that immediately. It's the same for a scroll wheel on a mouse. I scroll down to make the page move down - and that's how everyone has done it for years. It works. No need to change it, right?

For the digital crown, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet... But I certainly agree there should be an option to adjust which direction it goes - because some will like one way, and others - the other way.
 
nathanjbrown said:
I was just watching the Guided Tours on apple.com and something jumped out at me immediately: scrolling with the Digital Crown in the messages app (and elsewhere, I imagine) is backwards. The user in the video is rotating the Digital Crown clockwise (up) to scroll down.....
Click to expand...

You can use the screen to navigate also. If you push up on the screen the content goes down (just like your iPhone). You want the Crown to work backwards from the :apple:Watch's touch interface?:eek:

Also the Mac trackpad seems very intuitive to me. Now when I use a Windows PC I see how backwards the original way was.
 
nathanjbrown said:
I was just watching the Guided Tours on apple.com and something jumped out at me immediately: scrolling with the Digital Crown in the messages app (and elsewhere, I imagine) is backwards. The user in the video is rotating the Digital Crown clockwise (up) to scroll down.



For the attention to detail and expertise Apple brings to new products, this kind of crap annoys me. It makes sense when touching the screen. Hell, I can even let it go when Apple brought the same mindset to trackpads (although I immediately changed that setting). But rotating a physical object in the opposite direction of scrolling makes no sense.



Let's hope for a "switch to flip" in the Watch's settings menu.
Click to expand...


I'd say that they way they have done it, is the way it should be.
 
But by setting it up just as they have (and you can rest assured that they put lots of thought into every aspect of this), you make the same motion to scroll, whether you do it with your finger on the screen or rotating the crown.

You push/swipe up on the screen or you "push" your finger over the top of the crown to rotate it clockwise.

Same movement, same muscle memory and it remains a consistent action.
 
ah yes, the debate between "natural" (i.e backwards) scrolling and real physical scrolling.

I prefer down to down, up to up. Like how mice and arrow keys have been on desktops for years.
 
poematik13 said:
ah yes, the debate between "natural" (i.e backwards) scrolling and real physical scrolling.

I prefer down to down, up to up. Like how mice and arrow keys have been on desktops for years.
Click to expand...

How well would you like this on your iPhone?:eek:
 
Julien said:
How well would you like this on your iPhone?:eek:
Click to expand...

That's entirely different. It makes since when you are touching the display because it feels like you are pulling or pushing the content up or down. The digital crown doesn't feel this way as you aren't physically touching the display. More natural seems pushing up would go up and down would go down. I'd also say this makes more since on the watch because rotating the crown upward when changing numbers makes them increase, and moving it downward makes them decrease, same for zooming, and yet for scrolling, pushing it up makes it go down the page, and down makes it go up the page. To me, this is completely wrong, and makes it seem inconsistent. There better be an option in settings to make it be the more rational direction.
 
Multiverse223 said:
That's entirely different. It makes since when you are touching the display because it feels like you are pulling or pushing the content up or down....
Click to expand...

You can also touch the display to scroll. So you want it to go one way when you touch the screen and go another way when you touch the Crown, which is right next to the screen?

If you use a Mac and didn't change the Touchpad the scrolling will be natural. Natural is what you are used to and not predetermined by touching the screen or touching next to it.

Just to add, if a piece of paper is on a table and you put your finger on it and slide it down the paper will move down just like on your iPhone. How much more 'NATURAL' can you get????
 
OP here. I'm debating this very topic with a friend of mine (who happens to be an early Silicon Valley pioneer of sorts). He disagrees with me as well. So I asked him:

Did scrolling with the wheel on your mouse feel backward for the past 20+ years?

He said, "yes."

Regardless, the movement of the digital crown contradicts 20+ years of input device norms (until Apple f'ed with it a few years back on the trackpad).

I'd be curious to know if age correlates to preference.
 
I'm really hoping there is a setting that lets us turn off natural scrolling. That has always been the first setting I am forced to change when purchasing a new Mac. I know it makes sense to have the Wheel act as a virtual extension of the touch screen and emulate the same motions with scrolling, but there are just some that this does not work with (myself included).
 
This sounds like personal preference vs bad UX by Apple. Though I'm sure these videos will get scrutinized to the nth degree so this will be the first of many threads like this. :D
 
Julien said:
You can also touch the display to scroll. So you want it to go one way when you touch the screen and go another way when you touch the Crown, which is right next to the screen?

If you use a Mac and didn't change the Touchpad the scrolling will be natural. Natural is what you are used to and not predetermined by touching the screen or touching next to it.
Click to expand...
Oh dear. I guess I have to type it again. When you are physically touching the display, it makes sense that you are physically touching the content and pushing or pulling it away or toward you. Yes, I want them to be different, because they are inherently different input methods.

The trackpad on Macs didn't used to have 'natural scrolling' and yes, I absolutely changed it on my Mac, I changed it to the way that makes sense when you aren't physically touching the display.

----------
dilap said:
There isn't a setting for iPhone, why :apple: Watch?
Click to expand...

Because it's 100% different input method?
 
WilliamG said:
I think this is going to be VERY subjective. For example, sliding my finger up on a touch screen makes a lot of sense to make the content move down, like on an iPhone/iPad etc. However, for my Magic Trackpad, I do NOT like moving my fingers up to make the page move down. I reverse that immediately. It's the same for a scroll wheel on a mouse. I scroll down to make the page move down - and that's how everyone has done it for years. It works. No need to change it, right?

For the digital crown, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet... But I certainly agree there should be an option to adjust which direction it goes - because some will like one way, and others - the other way.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I feel.

----------
Julien said:
Just to add, if a piece of paper is on a table and you put your finger on it and slide it down the paper will move down just like on your iPhone. How much more 'NATURAL' can you get????
Click to expand...
Huh? When you scroll on a page on an iPhone, to scroll down, you drag your finger down. On the Mac trackpad, it's inverted to where to scroll down, your finger dragged up. Its not natural and I hate that setting.
 
nathanjbrown said:
I was just watching the Guided Tours on apple.com and something jumped out at me immediately: scrolling with the Digital Crown in the messages app (and elsewhere, I imagine) is backwards. The user in the video is rotating the Digital Crown clockwise (up) to scroll down.

For the attention to detail and expertise Apple brings to new products, this kind of crap annoys me. It makes sense when touching the screen. Hell, I can even let it go when Apple brought the same mindset to trackpads (although I immediately changed that setting). But rotating a physical object in the opposite direction of scrolling makes no sense.

Let's hope for a "switch to flip" in the Watch's settings menu.
Click to expand...

I fail to see your logic.

 
I just watched the video and I liked the way it worked. It seemed everything went the same direction you would expect if you were swiping on the screen instead of the crown.

This is all very subjective. I constantly tell people to scroll down a page meaning I WANT to see the bottom of it and many bring the PAGE down showing me the top.
 
Last edited:
this is a non issue. What happens when you scroll through the date on a traditional watch? The content moves, not the view finder. I don't think that bothers anybody.
 
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