Now that we’ve had some time to live with watchOS 4, what’s missing? What has Apple got right and should stay going forward? According to trends that we’ve been seeing on iOS, what do you think is going to make it into watchOS 5 due to be announced at WWDC next Summer?
After four tries, Apple finally got the side button right, moving from a rarely used messenger with Watch specific features towards a dock in watchOS 3 and polishing up the experience to a vertical scroll of app cards in watchOS 4.
The Dock also provides a place to access all other apps. I think that this gives us a hint at an impending removal of the apps home screen. It’s the least efficient way to start an app and gets in the way of navigation through the OS by giving it an important physical button (the Digital Crown). Our most used apps will already be in the dock and can be accessed from complications, Siri and notifications. The least used apps don’t deserve such a prominent position in the OS, let alone a physical button.
The Watch face with its app launching complications is the real Home screen in watchOS.
A revision of gestures on iPhone X gives us another hint at how Apple can deal with a device without a Home button. Sliding from below anywhere in watchOS could flick an app away revealing the Watch face below. Does Control Center need to be where it is? How often do you turn on Airplane Mode or Theatre Mode or anything else in this shelf? Can it be moved to the Dock? Maybe in a card above the current running app?
I see these moves as necessary to free the Digital Crown to do what it does best: screen free navigation. The Crown already scrolls lists, but when you want to select an item in those lists, you have to touch the screen. Pressing the Digital Crown should become the “Enter” button. Scroll, then press to enter.
Apple Watch is really coming into its own and the coming watchOS will begin to firm up navigation conventions. What do you think we’ll see?
After four tries, Apple finally got the side button right, moving from a rarely used messenger with Watch specific features towards a dock in watchOS 3 and polishing up the experience to a vertical scroll of app cards in watchOS 4.
The Dock also provides a place to access all other apps. I think that this gives us a hint at an impending removal of the apps home screen. It’s the least efficient way to start an app and gets in the way of navigation through the OS by giving it an important physical button (the Digital Crown). Our most used apps will already be in the dock and can be accessed from complications, Siri and notifications. The least used apps don’t deserve such a prominent position in the OS, let alone a physical button.
The Watch face with its app launching complications is the real Home screen in watchOS.
A revision of gestures on iPhone X gives us another hint at how Apple can deal with a device without a Home button. Sliding from below anywhere in watchOS could flick an app away revealing the Watch face below. Does Control Center need to be where it is? How often do you turn on Airplane Mode or Theatre Mode or anything else in this shelf? Can it be moved to the Dock? Maybe in a card above the current running app?
I see these moves as necessary to free the Digital Crown to do what it does best: screen free navigation. The Crown already scrolls lists, but when you want to select an item in those lists, you have to touch the screen. Pressing the Digital Crown should become the “Enter” button. Scroll, then press to enter.
Apple Watch is really coming into its own and the coming watchOS will begin to firm up navigation conventions. What do you think we’ll see?
