I’ve been pretty neutral about the changes on watchOS 10. I understood that people don’t like changes -

but it’s been 2 months now and I still try to bring up the control center the old way, I still try to access my most recently used apps the old way and I’m still annoyed by having submenus everywhere where watchOS 9 was straightforward with everything. watchOS 10 is the most unintuitive Apple experience I ever had.

Old top menu bar, one line leaving space for the actual content

New top menu bar with huge buttons at the top, pushing down the actual content

Probably the worst part on my 40mm SE is that the colorful backgrounds made all app icons on watch faces smaller (there has recently been a post about this) and I keep missing icons when clicking them. I sometimes need to click an icon 4 times until it registers, along with the colorful backgrounds and unnecessarily huge flashy other buttons this feels like a $50 knockoff Watch to me now.

Also what did they think when changing the menu bar at the top? It used to be one small line (picture 1) but now on my 40mm Watch about 1 fourth of the screen is covered by each app’s title or clock (picture 2). I know what app I’m in, I don’t need half the screen (exaggerating yes) covered to be reminded of the app I’m using.

​

watchOS 10 must’ve been designed by someone who doesn’t really use their Apple Watch much I assume. I’m not blaming them, everyone can make mistakes when the goal was progress but it’s not like a mistake has to be set in stone. Just roll it back or give us a choice between design and functionality - I personally prefer functionality, it’s not like watchOS 9 was so ugly that it needed a re-design to begin with.

  • FluffyMegazord@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My issue is the design language no longer feels intuitive. The simplicity of the UX coupled with the functional buttons no longer synchronises for me.

    • ShaidarHaran2@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Yes! That put words to my problem with it too, now it seems like the buttons just do random things, not connected to the software related to their physical placement

    • wheelie89@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Yeah it feels like they added multi-directional complexity to something that you’d expect to work in one direction only. I think the Apple Watch is the single only product that primarily feeds on being intuitive due to the limited screen size and one-hand use. Not anymore apparently.

      Now they just cram in new things everywhere without following a real guideline, making it feel rushed and not really thought-through

      • Benlop@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        All you need to know is that Kevin Lynch used to work at Adobe, on the Flash team.

    • xpxp2002@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Agreed. Though I felt that they were deviating from the original well thought out design ever since they stopped putting in Force Touch displays and nuked the functionality on older watches that still had the hardware.

    • iloveeatinglettuce@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Mostly for me it’s just awkward and unintuitive. I’ve never been a big fan of using the side buttons; the swipes, especially for accessing the control panel, felt natural before watchOS 10. Now it just feels the same way that accessing the control panel on the buttonless iPhone does: weird and out of place.

      And also, having to long press to switch between watch faces is just downright annoying. There should really be an option to revert back to the old way.