Well done BLOCKS team! Sometimes one update just isn't enough! Here is the update from KS for you guys!
Dear Blockers,
Our team has long been working on the User Experience of BLOCKS apps and really wanted to present to you some of our key thoughts and innovations. In the upcoming months before shipment we’ll be asking for your feedback on our app designs and watchfaces. One of BLOCKS key values is openness. We believe in the power and wisdom of the community and will always happily listen and get you involved as much as we can.
User Interface and Experience
The design process for the user interface is now in full swing, not just for the watch itself, but for the companion apps too.
We want to make using BLOCKS the best experience it can possibly be, and so we are basing our work on 5 guiding principles which we think will set us apart from the competition. By sharing these with you, we think you will get a real insight into the way we are approaching this design.
UI/UX: Guiding Principles
Speed: Getting things done on a smartwatch ONLY matters if it is faster than using your smartphone, or if it can be done in a context where your phone isn’t at hand (e.g. you can go for a run and you don’t need to take your phone).
Intuition: We don’t want to teach you how to use our interface. You will be able to work your way through it instinctively.
Proprioception: We aim to give a strong feeling of physical space through our layout, and navigation through our hierarchy is topologically consistent. (e.g. swipe left to proceed, swipe right to return).That may seem simple enough but is often overlooked!
Guidance: We will include contextual cues to help with any new interactions. The way to proceed will always be obvious and simple.
Integration: We aim to integrate well with existing applications and devices that you’re used to. We will challenge the archetype but not stray too far away from familiar paradigms.
UI/UX: Some key features
So, in line with our own guiding principles and those of our software partners, we have come up with some key features for our interface which we wanted to tell you about early on. There’s still a lot of work to be done on the look and feel but we’ll focus on those later.
Cover
You could think of this as a little bit like a lock screen for smartwatches.
Wait. A lock screen on a watch? Ok, just hear us out here…
We think that something current smartwatches get wrong is that they try to be too smart - all the time. It drains the battery and is also just plain distracting.
So this is why we are designing Cover.
The key idea behind Cover is that it silences the watch, and its primary function becomes that of a timepiece. Notifications are indicated using a single dot, and that is all. In order to view the notification or interact with the device, you must first remove the Cover.
“The way we like to think about this is that it’s like a plastic bottle cap. Drinking from the bottle can be thought of like an ‘interaction’ with the watch. By putting on the cap (or the cover) you change the state of the object - in the case of the watch, it becomes a timepiece. You conserve battery and silence your notifications, and disable all interaction other than that of removing the cover. We think this is a useful paradigm and something users will find very intuitive - and it also gives much greater scope for personalisation.”
App Drawer
We want to give you a super fast way to access apps. And we think we’ve come up with a great way to do this.
In line with our first guiding principle - Speed - we have come up with a way to keep all of the native apps on the watch at your fingertips. Instead of using the standard swiping through pages of apps, we have one continuous loop of apps which you can scroll through radially.
Scrolling in a circle might seem unusual, but the industrial design of our core means that your finger is guided around the outside of the screen and so will feel completely natural.
So far during our prototyping we have found this to be incredibly useful and we’re sure you’ll love it too.
But one of our favourite interactions is ‘draw-to-search’. If you think about how many apps you might have on a watch compared to a phone, drawing the first letter of an app is usually enough to narrow it down to 3 or 4 apps, making it really fast to get to the exact app you want. There are a couple of technical challenges we’re trying to overcome before we can guarantee implementing this, but it’s something we’re working hard towards!
That’s it for now for the user interface update. We will be uncovering more details on our apps and their visual design in the coming months so we can get your valuable feedback.
Modules
Earlier today we briefly met with our manufacturing partner in Taipei (just like everyday) and captured some new images of our functional modules for you.
Unlike the designs that you saw in the last update, here the electronics have already been packaged inside the latest design of our module casings and integrated with our connector.
This structure allows us to assess the connection-disconnection mechanism alongside the functional electronics, and optimise the allowable bend angle to make sure that the modules can fit perfectly around your wrists.
These are just two of the modules, and more are coming, followed by the core module, to form the first complete BLOCKS watch!
Dear Blockers,
Our team has long been working on the User Experience of BLOCKS apps and really wanted to present to you some of our key thoughts and innovations. In the upcoming months before shipment we’ll be asking for your feedback on our app designs and watchfaces. One of BLOCKS key values is openness. We believe in the power and wisdom of the community and will always happily listen and get you involved as much as we can.
User Interface and Experience
The design process for the user interface is now in full swing, not just for the watch itself, but for the companion apps too.
We want to make using BLOCKS the best experience it can possibly be, and so we are basing our work on 5 guiding principles which we think will set us apart from the competition. By sharing these with you, we think you will get a real insight into the way we are approaching this design.
UI/UX: Guiding Principles
Speed: Getting things done on a smartwatch ONLY matters if it is faster than using your smartphone, or if it can be done in a context where your phone isn’t at hand (e.g. you can go for a run and you don’t need to take your phone).
Intuition: We don’t want to teach you how to use our interface. You will be able to work your way through it instinctively.
Proprioception: We aim to give a strong feeling of physical space through our layout, and navigation through our hierarchy is topologically consistent. (e.g. swipe left to proceed, swipe right to return).That may seem simple enough but is often overlooked!
Guidance: We will include contextual cues to help with any new interactions. The way to proceed will always be obvious and simple.
Integration: We aim to integrate well with existing applications and devices that you’re used to. We will challenge the archetype but not stray too far away from familiar paradigms.
UI/UX: Some key features
So, in line with our own guiding principles and those of our software partners, we have come up with some key features for our interface which we wanted to tell you about early on. There’s still a lot of work to be done on the look and feel but we’ll focus on those later.
Cover
You could think of this as a little bit like a lock screen for smartwatches.
Wait. A lock screen on a watch? Ok, just hear us out here…
We think that something current smartwatches get wrong is that they try to be too smart - all the time. It drains the battery and is also just plain distracting.
So this is why we are designing Cover.
The key idea behind Cover is that it silences the watch, and its primary function becomes that of a timepiece. Notifications are indicated using a single dot, and that is all. In order to view the notification or interact with the device, you must first remove the Cover.
We’re still working on the actual look and feel of this, but here is the basic idea
“The way we like to think about this is that it’s like a plastic bottle cap. Drinking from the bottle can be thought of like an ‘interaction’ with the watch. By putting on the cap (or the cover) you change the state of the object - in the case of the watch, it becomes a timepiece. You conserve battery and silence your notifications, and disable all interaction other than that of removing the cover. We think this is a useful paradigm and something users will find very intuitive - and it also gives much greater scope for personalisation.”
App Drawer
We want to give you a super fast way to access apps. And we think we’ve come up with a great way to do this.
We’re still working on the actual look and feel of this, but here is the basic idea
In line with our first guiding principle - Speed - we have come up with a way to keep all of the native apps on the watch at your fingertips. Instead of using the standard swiping through pages of apps, we have one continuous loop of apps which you can scroll through radially.
Scrolling in a circle might seem unusual, but the industrial design of our core means that your finger is guided around the outside of the screen and so will feel completely natural.
So far during our prototyping we have found this to be incredibly useful and we’re sure you’ll love it too.
But one of our favourite interactions is ‘draw-to-search’. If you think about how many apps you might have on a watch compared to a phone, drawing the first letter of an app is usually enough to narrow it down to 3 or 4 apps, making it really fast to get to the exact app you want. There are a couple of technical challenges we’re trying to overcome before we can guarantee implementing this, but it’s something we’re working hard towards!
That’s it for now for the user interface update. We will be uncovering more details on our apps and their visual design in the coming months so we can get your valuable feedback.
Modules
Earlier today we briefly met with our manufacturing partner in Taipei (just like everyday) and captured some new images of our functional modules for you.
Unlike the designs that you saw in the last update, here the electronics have already been packaged inside the latest design of our module casings and integrated with our connector.
This structure allows us to assess the connection-disconnection mechanism alongside the functional electronics, and optimise the allowable bend angle to make sure that the modules can fit perfectly around your wrists.
These are just two of the modules, and more are coming, followed by the core module, to form the first complete BLOCKS watch!
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, [...]" (W. Blake, "Auguries of Innocence", 1-2)
