Apple Watch is the first wearable computer with a different perspective to improve our lives. I believe that the integration of human-centered design has never been so humane until introducing this wearable device.

An Apple Watch is probably one of the first gadgets we don’t consider a simple watch. However, it does so by improving how we speak with technology; in this story, I will review how its design has affected us.

Before the review, I have two fundamental questions:

• What does a wearable device is supposed to add to our lives?
• What kind of problems are most relevant for these devices to solve?

There are many more questions to answer, but the focus of this story is the design of the Apple Watch, and I hope somewhere in between the lines, we’ll get some answers for those questions.

Every time I want to review a product, whether digital or physical, I ask the basic fundamental question: What problem is this product trying to solve? And for the Apple Watch, the most highlighted problem to solve is taking care of our health.

Taking care of a human being is not an easy task. Physical and Mental health are two of the most crucial aspect of sustaining a healthy life. The Apple Watch does a fantastic job at encouraging us to physically improve ourselves.

Activity Rings, a colorful circular representation of how active we’ve been, is excellent gamification and a fun interactive way to become aware of our situation.

The app presents three rings:

1. Move: shows how many calories you have burned throughout the day.
2. Exercise: shows exercise duration, heart rate, and calories burned throughout the workout.
3. Stand: indicates how long you have been seated and encourages you to stand up at least one minute every hour.

These are all purposefully designed for improving your health by gamifying different aspects of your life. I disagree with gamification in general — I think it is deceiving and can quickly shift our focus from qualitative activities into quantifying them. Having said that, if it makes more people active, then there might be a good reason for it.

The watch comes with an advanced heart rate sensor that can calculate your BPM and uses other sensors to check your electrocardiogram, which is very accurate and can be especially useful for people with heart conditions.

The addition of ECG sensors is helpful for people who have heart-related conditions that they are not even aware of yet.

With the introduction of the Apple Watch Series 6, we also get a blood oxygen sensor that tells the percentage of oxygen in the red blood cells carried from your lungs to the rest of your body.

The User

It seems like with each generation of the Apple Watch, we get more specific groups of people involved in giving the device a chance to help them overcome health-related issues with their lives.

At first, we could use the gyroscope alongside accelerometer and other sensors to calculate movement and combine its data with the heart rate sensor to estimate how many calories we have burned.

It appears the first generations of Apple Watch mainly focused on nailing the basics with accuracy and top-notch user experience.

As customers grew and made more purchases, the device became more popular, and Apple, in return, Apple received tons of feedback that hint how this device can upgrade to help more of its customers while gaining new ones.

The introduction of ECG and blood oxygen sensors is just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, despite many people loving these features, I believe there are tons of missed opportunities.

Living in the pandemic could have been a lot easier if the Apple Watch could use its blood oxygen sensor and recommend specific tutorials for those infected with COVID-19.

The opportunity to include more medical sensors increases the overall health of an individual and brings the participation of more like-minded people to create a community of healthy individuals.

The Problem Statement

Having said all the pros of the advanced sensors on the Apple Watch, can we really consider it a device that solves most people’s problems in their lives?

Finding the right problem requires tons of user research. I’m observing this review as an enthusiast designer who loves Apple. Someone who adores the integration of human-centered design with the advancement of technology in everyday products.

Here are the most significant problems besides telling the time that I believe smartwatches should solve:

• Alleviate major concerns with oxygen and health-related conditions because of COVID-19.
• Analyze how the elderly walk, then log their activities with precise information for their doctors.
• Connect with smart health devices such as smart toothbrushes to create a profile for taking care of the overall appearance and the health of our tooth.
• Analyze posture during sitting down on a chair and recommend better positions for those who have established bad sitting habits.
• Create a medical records log file that is embedded into the NFC chip on the watch and is scannable in hospitals all over the world.
• Offer breathing solutions for people with a history of panic attacks.
• Reduce ear damage because of high volume based on its precise microphones.
• Recognize alarm and emergency sounds and analyze the current situation based on the physical location and the status of its users.

What score does it get?

Let’s talk about each aspect of my design score and see why and how it received its score.

Innovativeness

The progress of microchips in smartwatches is at a pace that we can’t keep up with. Every year we get faster processors with more transistors built in. As a result, the power consumption reduces significantly, and the implementation of machine learning and artificial intelligence with specifically designed chipsets makes our computers evermore powerful.

The latest Apple watch uses a system-on-a-chip processor called W3. It is a 64-bit chip with 2 cores. As a result, the watch is super fast at doing even the most processor-intensive tasks.

You can learn more about Apple Watch SOCs in the link below:

The latest generation of this device, the Apple watch series 6, comes with 8 sensors and an advanced tactile feedback system called Taptic Engine. The sensors are:

1. Ambient light sensor: Does a great job handling the screen’s brightness under direct sunlight or at night.
2. Optical heart sensor: Perfectly calculates your BPM among and shares that information with the rest of the sensors.
3. Electrical heart sensor: EKG, which is excellent for many people with heart conditions but doesn’t work in all countries.
4. Blood oxygen sensor: Same as EKG, it doesn’t work in all counties, and so far, it only does one thing, and I believe it can extend its functionality to other health-related situations.
5. Accelerometer: Does a great job with the gyroscope counting steps. It also can learn when you are washing your hands and counting seconds to see if you correctly washed them.
6. Gyroscope: Works with the accelerometer to provide meaningful information for health applications.
7. Barometric altimeter: Shows your current elevation, which is plenty helpful, especially for outdoor activities that require this sensor.
8. Magnetometer: Helps the compass app.

Check out this link to see which features of the Apple Watch work in your region:

The display technology is excellent. It uses a technology called LTPO which basically keeps the display’s refresh rate so low that it could always be on and show the time without having to waste a lot of battery. It can also get super bright at 1000 cd/m2, which is perfectly viewable under direct sunlight.

You can read an in-depth analysis of LTPO technology in the link below:

The device also comes with three input methods:

1. Digital crown that is used to scroll and sometimes change a number between two ranges
2. Side button, which is used to bring alternative functionality for input methods of the watch, and is used primarily to show opened apps.
3. Multi-Touch display is the primary input for the device.

I think the inclusion of a digital crown is genius and extremely necessary for a smartwatch. It allows the user to manipulate the input of the device underwater or where the touch sensitivity is not as good.

I will give this one a score of 7.5 because of a few reasons:

1. There still is no way to use the watch without physically interacting with it, and there are many situations where you can only use your voice to command action.
2. Not all sensors work across the world. Apple keeps updating which country can use each individual sensor, and I think it is restrictive and unfortunate for many buyers in many countries.
3. We still have not seen any significant technological advancement in a new sensor or the processor itself.

Ease of use

Once you are familiar with the Apple watch’s affordances, you must rely on your muscle memory. And that is the only major problem I found with the ease of use of this watch. The learning curve is a little bit steep, especially for someone who is not very good with technology.

If the target demographic of the Apple Watch includes targets elderly people, then it needs to be as simple as the iPhone. But, unfortunately, the number of input methods can be confusing for some people.

The Digital Crown: After using the device a couple of times, you expect the digital crown to only scroll the screen, but you realize that some values can be changes using this scrollable wheel.

The Side Button: It is more confusing than the digital crown. It is mainly used to summon Siri and bring the app exposé on my watch, but do other people also use this button for that purpose? My father (a generation x person), good at technology, does not even use the side button. When he wants to talk to Siri, he either asks with the “Hey, Siri” command or brings up the watch.

The Touch Display: It is the only great input option, in my opinion, and perhaps the watch doesn’t need any button other than the display touch itself. It can perform commands without any hassle.

I give this section a 7.1 score as the learning curve is a little steep, and some buttons can be removed and replaced with the digital touch screen.

Aesthetics

I gave this section a 9.2 score because of how minimal and beautiful this device looks. When it comes to appearances, Apple knows the game almost better than any other competitor in the industry. The simple look of the device with just a band on each side gives the impression of simplicity to anyone who hasn’t seen a proper implementation of a smartwatch.

Variety Of Bands: What complements the design of the Apple Watch is the infinite variation of bands from many companies all around the world. There is an option for almost anyone, and I think the bands are inclusive as well. The mechanism for installing the band is also simple, and any user can install them on their watch.

Colorful Watch Faces: The inclusion of smooth 60fps animations alongside multiple versions of watch faces brings many customization options for enthusiastic users out there. Some apps intelligently showcase a watch face while selling their own bands. Unfortunately, we still can’t create our own unique watch faces, but I think it is for the greater good since battery optimization is the number one concern for many engineers at Apple.

Longevity

The only part that gets almost a low score is the longevity. One of the reasons why I dislike consumerism is the demand it makes for the companies to release a new product each year. It is entirely unnecessary and pollutes the earth.

Our throw-away society is used to get attached to the new. We always think new is better. New is more fashionable. But, living this way, we often miss the true value of what makes a great product long-lasting.

The Apple Watch has passed 6 generations, and after the fourth release, it changed its size and some small aesthetics. When I look back at the first generation of the Apple Watch, it doesn’t feel timeless. For comparison, an iPhone 4 still looks modern with today’s standards compared to the new iPhone 12. In contrast, the Apple Watch Series 6 looks much aesthetically modern than the first generation of this device.

Because of these reasons, I give a score of 6.5 for longevity

Usability

The Apple Watch is the most usable smartwatch in the industry. I’m not saying it is the most usable watch, in fact, it is far from a “smart” watch, but it can recognize patterns in how people use it and help them achieve their goals.

For example, I am not physically very active. The first time I set up the Activities app to keep track of my exercise and calorie burns, it kept telling me that I’m not walking enough or exercising enough. But as time passed, it recognized that my current activity level is low to medium compared to the norm, so it suggests reducing the Activities to a lower level. That is one of the reasons why I love my Apple Watch.

One of the keys to the progress of a smartwatch is how well the watch can recognize the users’ habits and actions. Of course, offering solutions is the icing on the cake.

Interacting with the touch screen and the physical buttons is easy, albeit it needs a little learning. Overall, I give this watch a score of 8.2 as the device is very usable.

Thank you for reading my review of the Apple Watch. I hope you enjoy reading it. I will be happy to hear your thoughts and comments in the response section.