@Brad_Olwin. The question “Swiping left/right” for the widgets VS. the “new UX” apparently has stirred up some fuzz here on the forum. However, being new here, I find the discussion on this productive question took a rather destructive turn. What was missed, is the actual substance of the matter.
Therefore, I’d like to subsequently report on my recent experience. I do so in the hope that we could take up again the discussion in a more constructive way and maybe find a solution forward.
Just activated my Suunto Vertical, apparently with the “old UI” on it (whatever version). Much like described on (the still current) “HOW CAN I CUSTOMIZE THE WIDGETS OF MY SUUNTO WATCH?”, I could scroll through my widgets. Fairly intuitive, I found, also because one could scroll through the widget screens by swiping or the middle-button and getting a good grasp of the state of an athlete’s internal and external conditions.
It seems that the firmware on my watch was updated over night (to 2.33.12). This forced me to pin a widget, resulting in a different UX. The change came quite abrupt, not because the UX changed (differing also from as it described in the manual), but because the changed UI exhibits illogical behavior, some of it being:
a) The user can pin a widget, but not unpin. (Isn’t the logic of pinning that you can unpin whatever you pinned? Otherwise it would rather be two “screens/slots” to be filled.)
b) The user can only pin one widget, but not none, two, or more. (Why is ONE the right number of pin slots? If you can have one, it seems at least you should be able to have zero or better even also more than one.)
c) Widgets that are deactivated on the watch and/or in the smartphone app can still be pinned. (Why would a deactivated widget be “pinnable” at all, and appear when I scroll right, also after I deactived the widget (on the watch and/or the smartphone)? A deactivated widget should not be able to be pinned, leading back to the issues (a) and (b).)
d) Instead of scrolling through the widgets, in the “new UI” (speaking of 2.33.12) one can only scroll through the inventory of the widgets, only after “opening” the widgets does the relevant information become visible. (Why hiding functionality/information in more click depth, when it can be made directly available? The point has been made about gloves and water on the touchscreen etc…)
So, I find the question “old vs. new UI” (as suggested in the poll) is not what the (heated) discussion was or should be about. Also, it’s not a matter of preference or opinion, but logic, intuition, and accessibility (for non Suunto fans). The question would then rather be “how to address the unintuitive UX in the newer versions of the watch UX?”.
A simple solution could be to rename the “pinning” function. This might solve some irritation evoked by the term (esp. against (a) and (b)). However, point © and (d) remain unresolved.
Addressing (a), (b) and/or © would could solve the terminological confusion as well as it would address the disregarded user needs from those “preferring the old UI”. Think about it: unpinning the ONE would show me all widgest horizontally, or I could pin just all widgets I like to browse through horizontally. Deactivating a widget would unpin it, leaving me with none (or all?) widgest accessible horizontally…
Besides your personal preference (you prefer the “new UI” over the old one, according to the “divisively” formulated poll question), what do you think about the factual arguments on the reservations about the new UX, i.e., the vertical/horizontal arragement and the “depth” of clicks of the widget information?
