Needless to say I am not super excited about this change. Will I leave Apple Watch…no but it was not an upgrade. The comment about the stacks is supportive but just because the iPhone uses stacks does not mean the watch has to as well.
As a nurse, I’ve had multiple roles in my 20+ year career one of those roles has been for me to serve within the field of electronic medical records. The one thing I have learned is if you want to frustrate people then just add more steps to what was a very simple process. I have spent hours that could measured in weeks of listening to physicians and nurses count the number of mouse clicks it takes them to get from one screen to another to perform a simple task. Apple has done just that. You have taken a simple and intuitive process and turned it into a complex multi step process. Apple lost focus of asking the question how are our customers (the Apple family) using their devices?
We want our devices to work with us seamlessly. We want them to enhance our lives not complicate our lives. For me the fact that I can silence my phone and my watch and when I’m getting a call from another important situation, say another family, I can look at my watch without being interrupted by a ring, and I can continue my visit with the family that I’m with. I like the fact that I can monitor my fitness, activity and standing throughout the day. I like the fact that for the most part I can monitor my heart rate that I get something that reminds me to take a moment of mindfulness for myself. These are all wonderful functions, but they are not the primary source of what a watch is meant to do, which is to tell time. This is true when it comes to electronic medical records everybody loves the fact that everything is in one place but a simple function of writing vitals down on a sheet of paper is turned into a 15 step process just to get to that screen , it’s an inconvenience not an improvement. The same is true when changing what people used to use to allow them to adjust the face to wherever they were in the function of their day. We all do not live in one world all day long that is the beauty of swiping between faces.
The beauty of a well tuned smart watch is that it allows us to continue to keep track of time and date while adjusting it seamlessly to the different roles and interests we have throughout our day. If the creators of these smart devices begin to see this “watch” as a wrist computer and they make their function more complicated then I may as well return to my classic dress watch and my Ironman training watch. Because then once again I am controlling how my time peace serves in my life as opposed to me serving my time peace. Yes the health functions are nice. But it has not completely altered my health. It has assisted me in some areas.
Apple, I believe you should strongly reconsider this upgrade and maybe look at it as a downgrade. Thank you for hearing our voices. Keep the focus. The Apple Watch is still a watch that should be able to intuitively adjust to our roles in a day. I don’t want it to be an another version of my iPhone. If I did then I would just strap my iPhone to my wrist.
