Month: May 2015

So I know Apple fans are already yelling:

“That question doesn’t make sense!  The iPhone is innovative because it defined the mobile phone category and intuitive because it’s so easy to use!  The iPad is innovative because it dramatically improved the working and creative environments and intuitive for the same reason as the iPhone!  The Apple Watch is innovative because it will define the watch category and intuitive for the same reason again!”

So…let’s zero in to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown.

Is it intuitive?  Yes.  Because it rotates, you can scroll lists with it and zoom in and out of things.

But now look at your mouse.  It most likely has a scroll wheel.  Is that intuitive?  Yes.  Because it rotates, you can scroll lists and zoom in and out of things.

So is the Digital Crown innovative?  No, because it’s been used for the exact same things in that basic form.

Is it innovative in the sense that it is being used as an option to a touch screen?  I say “option” because even though the Digital Crown scrolls lists, for some reason you can still use your finger on the screen to scroll the lists.

Well…yes…no one’s probably thought of using a scroll wheel in conjunction with a touch screen…

But the Digital Crown alone is not innovative.  And it’s actually NOT immediately intuitive either.  Let me explain.  Put down that pitch fork.

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You’ve probably have handled a normal watch before.  It has an analog watch face, it looks shiny, and it has that little crown on the side that you use to wind it.  Now you come into contact with an Apple Watch.  The screen wakes up, and because of a second of it not doing anything you try to wind it because DID I MENTION THE APPLE WATCH ALSO LAGS…sorry.

You attempt to wind the watch with the crown, but it doesn’t appear to do anything.  You assume maybe you have to pull it out first like some crowns do.  You pull it, but again nothing happens.  You then push it, and the entire screen changes to a weird circle-grid thing.  You’ve completely lost the watch face, and you panic, twiddling the crown.  The grid zooms out, in, and finally back to the watch face.  Not realizing that it actually has a touch screen, you then press the only other button you can see:  That big button that looks a lot like your iPhone’s sleep/wake button.  You lose the watch face again, the face being replaced by a picture of one of your friends, and several other things you didn’t want.  What? You had half-expected (though most likely fully expected) the watch to turn off, and you panic again, twiddling the crown.  This time, the watch face never returns, but instead the selector thing on the screen rotates, flipping through different photos.  You push in the side button again, and the screen returns to the watch face.  And then you assume you can’t wind it, and worry that there is a way to do it, but the watch might run out of spring before you can find it.

So yeah, not only  is the Digital Crown not intuitive, the entire first experience can be horribly not intuitive if you don’t read the manual first.

And do I really have to mention that reading the manual or watching one of Apple’s instruction videos and THEN knowing how to use the device doesn’t count as the device being intuitive?

Yes, the Apple Watch might be innovative, but that doesn’t mean it’s intuitive.

So let’s define “intuitive”:

From Google:

1. using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive.

   “I had an intuitive conviction that there was something unsound in him”

   synonyms:

   instinctive, instinctual

   • (chiefly of computer software) easy to use and understand.

“Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning”.

I can fail that immediately with the side button:  It looks WAY too much like your iPhone’s sleep/wake button.  You will feel immediately like that button will turn the watch off, because that specific shape has been burned into your head as basically an “on/off” switch.  And while that button DOES turn on and off the watch (because that totally makes sense to combine that with accessing your contacts), it also accesses your contacts, but you hold it to turn off the watch and REALLY APPLE?

[Actually if you’ve never seen an Apple device before then maybe it’s okay…but then you realize that the Apple Watch requires the iPhone for most functions :p]

“(Chiefly of computer software) easy to understand and use”

…see my description of the Digital Crown.  And the entire post for that matter.

So NO, the Apple Watch is NOT intuitive.

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But what about innovative?

Well, yes indeed!  The S1 processor that powers the Apple Watch is clearly innovative.  It’s so small, and yet has so much in it.  The Apple Watch is about as powerful (if not more so) then the iPhone 5.  Maybe.

And Force Touch is innovative as well.  Pressing harder on the screen is a really cool thing…but it’s almost an admission that it’s tough to design for a small screen.

A lot of the innovation of the Apple Watch comes from the fact that Apple created super-tiny components in order to fit it all in a really small space.

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So yes, it’s innovative.  But not intuitive.

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The iPhone was innovative AND intuitive because of all the physical skeuomorphism that the interface had.  The new iOS look is NOT immediately intuitive.

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The iPad is the same thing, although it was innovative for a different reason.  It dramatically improved the creative space and made it much easier to design and work.

Is the iPhone itself innovative now?  Not really.

Is the iPad itself innovative now?  Not really.

Are they both intuitive by definition?  They were…not anymore.

Is the Apple Watch innovative now?  Yes.

Is it intuitive by definition?  Not at all.