Apple Watch Review Diary: UX, odds and ends


This is my tenth post about my week or so using the Apple Watch. This one here will wrap up some random topics that I think are worth noting.

The Apple Watch screen is blank until either a control is touched or the wrist is raised. This is a setting within the watch and I'd assume how most people will use it. It works pretty well, but there's some room for improvement, I think. I assume Apple has the setting pretty tight to maximize battery life, and I think things could be loosened up. For example, sometimes it doesn't turn on with a conventional wrist look. Sometimes I need to use an exaggerated motion to get it to activate. Also, the watch goes dark sometimes quickly. It's fine for quick glances, but if you're looking at something, it's kind of annoying. Another thing which may or may not be battery-related is there's a hesitant delay before the screen pops on. It would be nice if the watch was more responsive to natural movements and stay on longer. Basically be more responsive even if the battery suffered a bit. Ideally I'd like some controls to modify the tolerances to fit my best user experience. I'm not having issues with the battery life, so keeping these controls so tight is actually a negative experience. With that said, it's far from a problem.

The Taptic taps are kind of soft. Not sure if it's exactly as I'd like or they need to be stronger. If I'm occupied I won't notice texts or notifications. Which I think is good, but at the same time I'm running with the assumption that my watch will keep my from missing something. Once a notification is ignored, the only indication is the red notification indicate at the top of the screen.

In sunlight the screen seems file. Like an iPhone, in direct bright sunlight it can be a bit challenging, but fine. Otherwise the screen works well in the outdoors from my usage.

One feature I'm unexpectedly really liking is the Remote app and the Apple TV. This is pretty slick. Using my iPhone as a remote seems cumbersome while the watch is nifty.

Handoff works really well. In retrospect, I feel like the Apple Watch is the real reason for implanting Handoff in OS X and iOS. A way to move between devices is critical for the Apple Watch and more of a relative novelty for iOS. Switching to the iPhone for a phone call is perfectly seamless and switching over to full apps on the iPhone works just as well.

Some apps seem to load quickly and be responsive, while others not so much. Weather to me far seems the worst offender and I've seen buggy experiences with other apps. I'd guess the trick is to launch the app quickly with minimal data transfer needed and then load in the data later or as needed for the best experience. I'd expect things will get better without new hardware. Mostly though, the apps seems to run fine even if I may be a little forgiving in performance.

Lastly the watch faces are cool, but limited. The kids love the Mickey face. Hopefully we'll get more faces, but even more, I'd like it if developers could plug app data into the customizable fields. That would be real slick.