Six Colors' WWDC Wish List: Apple Watch

The team from Six Colors has come up with some improvements they hope to see in  ‘watchOS 3′ for Apple Watch, which is expected to be announced at WWDC on Monday.

I think they sum up the primary problems with the Apple Watch in this paragraph:

“The Apple Watch’s app model doesn’t work. The large screen of circular app icons is hard to navigate, and most apps aren’t worth the trouble, often because they’re slow and unreliable. Glances are interesting, but often too limited. The sole button is dedicated to a feature—bringing up a wheel of friends so you can send them texts and Digital Touch sketches—that’s not remotely core to the experience of using the device. There aren’t enough watch face options, and the ones that do exist aren’t particularly customizable. Fitness features are erratic and require too much user interaction.”

They hope that Apple will make some big changes, including getting rid of ideas that just don’t work. They point out that the Apple Watch doesn’t need apps in the same sense that the iPhone does, and in their current state, they are so laggy that they’re hardly worth using.

“Bottom line: If there’s anything Apple can do to make Watch apps launch reliably and quickly on the existing Apple Watch hardware, it should make that happen, even at the expense of app functionality. It doesn’t matter how powerful watch apps can theoretically be if nobody ever opens them because they’re unreliable.”

Other article highlights: One button should be able to do more than bring up a list of friends or Apple Pay. Let the user choose its function. Fitness tracking should be better automated, so you don’t have to remember to start a workout before exercising. The watch is just too darn slow. Let’s ditch the glances, which aren’t efficient, and open up watch faces to third-party developers. Siri needs improvement. Not everything can be fixed with a software update, but hopefully Apple will indicate at WWDC that they are moving in the right direction.

You can read the full article here. I can’t say I disagree with anything they’ve said. You can bet I’ll be paying close attention to the Apple Watch portion of the WWDC keynote speech.