Apple Watch Glances help brands make important data accessible
This post is adapted from How to design WatchKit apps for Apple Watch, a whitepaper on designing for Apple’s first wearable.
Beyond notifications, another development opportunity within WatchKit are Apple Watch Glances, views that are accessible to users by swiping up on the watch face home screen. Apple’s built-in Glances include a now playing screen, which provides access to playhead functions from the Music app, an Activity screen, which shows users’ progress toward their fitness goals, and a Settings shortcut, which emulates the functionality of Control Center on iOS to provide dead-simple access to Airplane Mode, volume controls, and more.
Third-party developers have different access to Glances, however, which is one of the primary limitations of the Apple Watch developer frameworks today. “Glances essentially allow you to show one data point that’s relevant right now,” said Epstein. “You can visualize that data however you like, but it can’t be interactive. Clicking on a third-party Glance just launches the app.” Despite this limitation, Glances can be a primary avenue for developers to provide value to their users on Apple Watch.
A few examples of Apple Watch Glances from third-party developers.
“Sometimes, there’s one piece of data that’s most relevant to users,” said Epstein. “Maybe that’s the whole reason they even use the app. On iOS, they pop into the app, check on the one thing that interests them, and go back to their home screen. Wouldn’t it be easier to give them that information right away, and eliminate unnecessary steps in the user flow?”
Glances are designed to make the most timely and pertinent information the most accessible information.
Similar behavioral patterns apply on iOS, where Apple sought to address this need with Notification Center widgets in iOS 8. Oftentimes, one relevant piece of data or single function is the sole purpose of the app for a wide swath of users. “Take a weather app for example,” said Epstein. “Maybe the weather widget in Notification Center just tells you the temperature. That one data point might be the primary reason you even have the app, and secondary data points—like whether it’s overcast, or the wind direction, or precipitation—are best reserved for second clicks within the app.”
Glances provide an opportunity to make those most common functions accessible straight from the watch face. Thankfully, because of the varying types of information that users might expect of apps, there are a myriad of ways for third-party designers and developers to visualize data within a WatchKit Glance. “A step tracker might visualize the steps data point with a clear graph, whereas further data points like calories and miles walked are accessible in the app view. A stock trading app might show users their personal portfolio’s performance, but information about the stock market at large stays inside the app. It’s all about making the most timely and pertinent information the most accessible information.”