The Timer in watchOS 10 • furbo.org
The brand new visible look and performance of watchOS 10 is a welcome change. There was clearly a whole lot of design and engineering effort put into this new interface and the enhancements are tangible for many apps.
Sadly, the app that I take advantage of probably the most on the Apple Watch has misplaced a lot of its usability, each in performance and accessibility.
I’m speaking in regards to the Timer app.
The workforce designing watchOS clearly is aware of what it’s doing. Utilizing the infinitely giant corners of the Apple Watch show to leverage Fitt’s Law exhibits outstanding perception. The brand new gestures, whereas unfamiliar at first, really feel like they are going to be as transformative as when telephones now not had Residence buttons.
The one rationalization I can discover for the Timer’s design regressions is an unfamiliarity with some use instances. Within the following critique, I’ll give attention to how the watch is used within the kitchen and the way older prospects battle with the brand new format. Options might be saved to a minimal: the trouble right here is to be descriptive, not prescriptive.
Historical past
The Timer has been my favourite app because it debuted within the first model of watchOS. It was primary: you possibly can solely set one timer and also you needed to do it manually (there have been no presets).
Why was this interface so helpful to me? As a result of I spend a whole lot of time cooking.
My watch grew to become the proper timer. It went with me wherever I used to be making a meal. No extra conditions the place you set a reminder within the kitchen and don’t hear it go off since you are outdoors on the barbecue.
The subsequent model of the Timer added presets for 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and half-hour together with settings for one or two hours. This, to me, was the top of its design on watchOS. Why?
These time settings, positioned in a neat grid, supplied all of the performance I wanted. I solely used the primary six timers, however I used them typically.
However extra importantly, the navigation of that magic grid might be accomplished with out fingers. Any cook dinner can inform you that there are occasions the place raw meals in your fingers is both harmful or messy. Dressing a hen, gutting a fish, or making meatballs are all instances the place you’ll not wish to contact an Apple Watch.
As an alternative, you’ll navigate along with your nostril.
That’s proper, a capacitive display works with any a part of your physique. I can simply begin a brand new timer or cancel a ringing timer simply by holding it as much as my face. And while you’re cooking, you do that always.
Which ends up in the subsequent interation of the watchOS Timer. The addition of Recents made attending to the 1/3/5/10/15/30 settings tougher as a result of scrolling along with your nostril is considerably harder. Fortunately, when you positioned the magic grid on the machine, going into and out of timers might be accomplished shortly and simply.
And the efficency of choosing a timer is essential if you find yourself setting a dozen of them each hour. How can that occur?
Cooking Occasions
So now let’s take a look at a few of the particular issues that cooks want from the Timer app. To present you an thought of the essential problem, you’ll be able to ask this easy query:
How lengthy does it take to carmelize an onion?
The proper reply is: “I do not know”. There are too many components concerned:
- How a lot water content material is within the onion?
- How giant is the onion?
- What’s the ambient temperature within the kitchen?
- What sort of pan are you utilizing?
- What’s your present elevation?
What you do know is that it’ll take about quarter-hour for the onion to melt up at a medium warmth. And then you definitely test it. And possibly decrease the warmth and set a timer for 10 minutes. And test it once more. After which most likely do a 3 or 5 minute timer on low warmth a pair instances. And when that’s accomplished, you go together with one minute and do your greatest to not burn them. That is how you find yourself setting a dozen timers in an hour.
All cooks have this inherent data: when a recipe says “quarter-hour” you already know which means “test it at 10 minutes” and go from there. I don’t even belief instances on frozen pizzas: are you completely certain that your oven temperature is 425º F?
That is precisely why the magic grid within the Timer app is so vital. It has all of the frequent checkpoints a cook dinner wants. It’s additionally why Recents are a non-feature whereas cooking: after you’ve accomplished your 5 minute checkpoint and return to Recents you want a timer for one minute however 5, 30, 15, and three are the latest.
One other facet to cooking is that you simply’re usually in a rush and juggling a number of duties. Setting a timer manually is way faster and safer than counting on Siri. A kitchen additionally tends to be a loud place, with a number of conversations and background music. If Siri doesn’t perceive what you’ve mentioned, you’re going to finish up with burnt onions.
Rising Older
The challenges of rising older are quite a few, however the one which I battle with probably the most is imaginative and prescient. My eyes suck.
For those who’re a younger designer, you haven’t any thought what’s coming. I didn’t.
It’s frequent for getting older eyes to be affected by presbyopia. The focal difficulties related to this illness means you must focus extra to learn small textual content. That’s exacerbated when the textual content incorporates repeated symbols. The distinction of the textual content in opposition to a background can also be vital.
In brief, symbols like “01:00” and “10:00” enhance cognitive load as a result of they will’t be learn at a look.
Additionally of observe: your well being is a a lot greater concern as you get older. You’re reminded of your mortality day by day while you battle to place in your socks. The Apple Watch’s well being monitoring options grow to be important as you enter this stage of your life. I’m assured that Apple has a whole lot of getting older customers for this machine.
It’s possible that the issues confronted by a big portion of the shopper base aren’t recognized by a younger design workforce. I’m hoping this essay will assist with that.
The Comparability
Now that we’ve lined a few of the particular wants of outdated farts and individuals who prefer to cook dinner, let’s take a look at how adjustments in watchOS 10 have an effect on each performance and value for these teams.
As we talk about these adjustments, I’ll be referring to the picture under which exhibits how issues regarded earlier than (left) and after (proper) the brand new watchOS model:
Performance
The foundation of the issue on watchOS 10 is that setting a timer is now accomplished in a modal presentation (with a detailed button within the upper-left nook).
Which means no place is maintained between makes use of: the Recents are all the time on the prime and have the ordering drawback famous above. The magic 1/3/5/10/15/30 grid is just accessible by scrolling.
The brand new UI is inconceivable to make use of hands-free. Cooks who wish to set or change a timer whereas deboning a hen are out of luck.
This drawback might be remedied if the final place within the modal view was maintained as in earlier variations of watchOS. If sustaining the scroll place will not be doable, an affordance to take away or collapse Recents would assist by placing the magic 1/3/5/10/15/30 grid on the prime of the view.
Moreover, the All Timers checklist begins with an enormous plus button. This breaks the muscle reminiscence related to 1 minute being within the top-left place – it’s now within the top-right.
In my expertise, including a timer is a uncommon occurance. I’ve accomplished it twice within the 8 years I’ve owned an Apple Watch. Each have been for laundry: one for a washing cycle and one other for a drying cycle.
Placing the massive plus button on the finish of the checklist, and nearer to Edit, appears like a greater answer that makes the checklist extra readable and acquainted.
Accessibility
While you evaluate the screenshots of the earlier and present variations you’ll be able to simply see that watchOS 10 is extra constant. The checklist can also be shorter as a result of favorites have been folded into All Timers. These are each good issues.
However the consistency works in opposition to me and my failing eyesight. All the things appears the identical and it’s tough to know the place I’m inside the checklist. (Keep in mind that you solely seeing 4 of the circles on the watch face: there are factors whereas scrolling the place you’ll be able to’t know should you’re in Recents or All Timers.)
As famous above, differentiating between “01:00” and “10:00” takes extra effort. Not solely is the textual content smaller, however there’s a whole lot of further noise that impacts readability. The textual content in watchOS 9 used “1 MIN” and “10 MIN”, with the numbers offered in an accent colour to emphasise the minutes. It was far more readable.
The necessity for main and trailing zeros to keep up consistency additionally results in a state of affairs the place timers which are longer than 59 minutes get smaller textual content that’s more durable to learn. Fortunately, the necessity for a ten hour timer in my life is unlikely, so I don’t should cope with studying a tiny “10:00:00” and “01:00:00”.
The main and trailing zeros made some sense in watchOS 9’s Favorites and Recents checklist the place every button’s label aligned properly with its siblings. However with the grid format in watchOS 10, the necessity for zero padding will not be obligatory and simply appears like visible noise.
(Be aware that customers with VoiceOver hear “one minute”, not “zero one colon zero zero” or “one minute zero seconds”. Visible noise for regular eyesight must be diminished simply as it’s with the spoken audio.)
My first thought was that these adjustments on watchOS have been an effort to get consistency throughout platforms, particularly with the addition of a number of timers in iOS 17. This doesn’t look like the case:
I’ve additionally puzzled why seconds are proven as part of the usual format on watchOS. I’m certain there are those who set timers for 12 minutes and 34 seconds, however they’re actually the outliers. When was the final time you had a pizza that wanted 11:45 within the oven or a load of laundry that took 45:11?
Folks assume in minutes, so reduce their cognitive load by specializing in that unit of time. By doing this, you possibly can enhance accessibility for everybody by utilizing BIGGER NUMBERS on a small display.
(Seconds might be dealt with in a means just like the brand new Modular Extremely watch face. Dimming the trailing seconds would permit somebody to know that “1:23” is one minute and 23 seconds and never one hour and 23 minutes. Once more, minutes are the factor that’s most vital to individuals.)
In abstract, this can be a uncommon case the place much less consistency would make for a greater and extra accessible consumer interface.
One closing accessibility drawback within the new Timer app is when one completes. Here’s what you see, each with and with out accessibility options turned on:
The picture on the left has daring textual content turned on with the default textual content measurement. On the proper, you see what occurs while you make the textual content measurement bigger and enhance the distinction.
The timer size on this display will not be accessible and can’t be improved with accessibility settings. The dim textual content on a vivid orange background is extremely laborious for me to learn. I feel the data hierarchy is the foundation of the issue.
“Performed” will not be crucial factor on this display when you have got a timer that completes: the size of what simply completed is most important. Folks will know what a vivid orange display and ringing means. They could not know which timer fired, and that may solely be decided by studying “1 MIN” in dimmed out textual content at a a lot smaller measurement.
Whereas counting, the present state of the timer belongs in giant white textual content. When the rely is full, the size of the timer that completed has that very same degree of significance. This significance will increase when you have got a number of timers.
(Complicated timers with comparable lengths is a simple factor to do: I practically screwed up two COVID assessments at a time once they have been in extraordinarily brief provide. This occurred as a result of I didn’t discover the “5 MIN” and “15 MIN” textual content.)
A minimum of the timer textual content within the screenshots above will not be “01:00”. Please don’t make this constant, too.
Conclusion
I’m truthfully not trying ahead to the subsequent yr with the Timer app. It’s going to be an irritation dozens of instances day by day.
My solely hope is the opposite nice enhancements in watchOS 10, particularly with exercises and exercise monitoring, will make up for it. ????
If you must get in contact with me about any of this, there’s FB13212554. For those who’re a developer who feels equally about these regressions, please dupe this suggestions (it’s a duplicate of this weblog put up). In any other case, you’ll be able to send your comments to Apple straight.