Monthly Archives: February 2015

The Apple Watch is the New iPhone—and the iPhone is the New iPad

Apple had a plan when they introduced the iPhone. The iPhone was going to be your new pocket computer—easily at hand all the time. No bigger than a handful (and at the time, even a 3.5” screen was considered huge for a phone). It probably would’ve gotten thinner and thinner, until it became like the iPod touch 5th generation. (Have you held one of those recently? Pretty amazing.) iPhone app developers were given tools to carefully craft apps at a fixed screen size.

It’s been said that the iPad was in development even before the iPhone, but the phone was going to be the generate more money because everyone had a phone. So the tablet form factor (the iPad) was going to be an accessory. After being wowed by an iPhone, users would eventually want something that wasn’t so pocketable, but still booted up instantly, was thin & light & touchable, very secure, and ran the same apps as their phone.

That was the plan.

But a funny thing happened along the way:  Continue reading →

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An Apple Watch ‘Glance’ is a Today Extension for Your Watch

The Apple Watch isn’t out yet—not until April, 2015, Tim Cook says. But your company should be planning and designing for it already.

Apple has released a beta version of the developer’s SDK (software development kit) for it, as well as UX HIG (human interface guidelines) for it, and your architect and UX designer should be abreast of them.

The Apple Watch introduces several new terms which will become part of your vocabulary, such as Glances, Short Look Notifications, Long Look Notifications, Apple Watch app, and Apple Watch Extension. Each one of these new Apple Watch interfaces varies in the amount of customizability it offers to your company when creating an Apple Watch experience.

What are all these new terms, and what’s a good way of thinking about them that won’t overtax our already full brains?  Continue reading →

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