What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch

Bulkan

@dmytro @freeheeler you are killing me guys

freeheeler

@dmytro
hmm… I am not so sure about the durability. The less moving parts the better. But I can imagine that Suunto would manage to design something reliable.

on the other hand: it needs a lock-bezel function

olymay

Personally, I like not having a button on the bottom left (I wear my watch on my left wrist) as this is where my thumb naturally rests and can then push back against the watch when pressing the buttons on the right hand side.

If there were a button here then it would either get pressed at the same time, or I would have to move my thumb.
Not exactly a major problem to move my thumb, but there is a lot of muscle memory there now and it would likely frustrate the heck out of me for a while.

I have a Suunto 7 and love the four button plus touch screen interface, feels intuitive and close to perfect to me.

Mister PYC

@bulkan humm humm … try a touch screen for example when you are swimming … it does not work … a possible use case.
Having said that I totally agree with you about 2 thinks

The SUUNTO approach with 3 buttons plus the scrolling and touch is already really awesome
Going to 5 buttons like Garmin … why not 6,è,8,9 …

My point was more … when my thumb arrive precisely on a place where there is no button … dommage …

Mister PYC

@olymay humm humm … you have 4 buttons … on a suunto 9 there are only 3.
Again as I said in another reply … the idea is not to put buttons all around the watch but use them intelligently and here we can say that SUUNTO has already used very brilliantly their buttons in theig GUI …
After that one more button could give new approach which could be also very intuitive

olymay

@mister-pyc I haven’t used an S9, so am not familiar with how the buttons are configured.
The extra button on the S7 is purely for WearOS and is the home/app drawer button (also power button on long press).

The S9 (and S7) is touchscreen, something that Garmin have not yet implemented in it’s high end devices (although rumours are it will be there in the F7 and E2).

Could Suunto add an extra button to the S9? Of course. Would it add a huge amount? As all of the software and interface are optimised around the current layout, this is unlikely.
And if they add too many then they will be accused of copying Garmin.

I like the idea of a rotating bezel and crown on a smartwatch, but on something designed for more hardcore adventures, they would be a pain to use and more likely trigger by mistake.

I think both Suunto and Garmin have great interfaces optimised for their hardware and software.
Perfect? No, nothing is. Could they be improved? Of course.
This is where suggestions like yours are great, as it starts a talking point amongst users and designers

Brad_Olwin

@mister-pyc I can’t think of anything worse than a button for a thumb when wearing gloves!

freeheeler

@brad_olwin
talking about gloves… I’ve got the Hestra Heli Ski Lobster and can operate all 3 buttons of my X-Alps nicely good old Suunto glove ready button concept

Frederic

Huh, it depends, when I have this issue after an exercise, it is likely the middle one if you know what I mean…

Joke aside, it’s my right index.

Mister PYC

@brad_olwin said in What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch:

@mister-pyc I can’t think of anything worse than a button for a thumb when wearing gloves!

Humm Brad … should I catch that your glove is only protecting your thumb but not the other fingers ???

Personally in any case I do almost all manipulation removing gloves even by -25/20°C (gloves being stored inside my jacket near the body to keep them wam) OK OK … I should confess we are more down to max -15°C now than in past

Just to say … for me my gloves are in any case not adapted to watch …

Mister PYC

@freeheeler
Whaouuu good to know !

Mister PYC

@frederic I should confess manipulating what you call the middle one with gloves is effectivelly … well … hazardous ??? … Risky ??? … Technical ???

Brad_Olwin

@mister-pyc said in What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch:

@brad_olwin said in What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch:

@mister-pyc I can’t think of anything worse than a button for a thumb when wearing gloves!

Humm Brad … should I catch that your glove is only protecting your thumb but not the other fingers ???

Personally in any case I do almost all manipulation removing gloves even by -25/20°C (gloves being stored inside my jacket near the body to keep them wam) OK OK … I should confess we are more down to max -15°C now than in past

Just to say … for me my gloves are in any case not adapted to watch …

With heavy gloves on for SkiMo at ≥4000m when windy I can operate the three buttons on my S9baro, I’ve done this many times but I would not be able to operate a button with my thumb easily. This is my main issue with the S9Peak, my favorite watch, that the buttons are nearly impossible to operate with gloves on. Not a good idea to take the gloves off as frostbite can occur quickly.

Mister PYC

@brad_olwin said in What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch:

frostbite

Thanks for the word “frostbite” word, I never look at it in english, so you teach me something here.

I agree with you that as much – not to say always – as possible we should never ever take the gloves off … still I’m used to it, really doing mountain ski in cold and high places (I did the high road from Chamonix to Zermatt in incredible frozen conditions in 2013) but in such case making sure I store my gloves nearby the body inside the jacket and even below the pullover so that theystay warm and in case of frosbite I’m able to put them immediately … as they are still warm the frosbite get off fast …

A question for you : what makes the S9Baro operational with gloves and the S9Peak not ? … why not in such case have another S9Baro button for the thumb if here it works fine with your gloves ? …

Reading yoru answer I got more the feeling that the problem is with the S9Peak buttons rather than to their place on the watch … I’m I wrong ?

freeheeler

@mister-pyc
I did not yet put my hands on the S9P, but I can imagine that the buttons are too far down and too small to operate with gloves.
This is a no go for me… hence my wish for the S9P XL: buttons located and sized as on the S9B X-Alps…

…again, to quote Alex Honnold: GO BIG

Egika

@brad_olwin I found the S9P buttons difficult to operate with gloves as well, because they are so tucked under the side of the watch.
The advantage of unwanted button presses through bending your wrist turns into a disadvantage then.

Brad_Olwin

@egika said in What is your most important finger ? ... proposal for a future SUUNTO watch:

@brad_olwin I found the S9P buttons difficult to operate with gloves as well, because they are so tucked under the side of the watch.
The advantage of unwanted button presses through bending your wrist turns into a disadvantage then.

I agree, my favorite watch! And, I do not see a good solution.

sky-runner

@mister-pyc Suunto Ambit series had 5 buttons and I liked that much better than the current 3 button setup.

Here are advantages of the old 5 button setup:

Dedicated backlight button, although now that there is a light sensor, that is probably not as advantageous as it used to be
Assignable button shortcuts - I used that a lot with Ambits. Garmin Fenix too offers multiple user assignable shortcut combinations
I really liked the View button functionality on Ambits and used it extensively. On regular data screens it allowed to rotate through the bottom field, which is perhaps not as usable now. But on the navigation screen it allowed to rotate through navigation views - zoomed in view, zoomed out view, and the next waypoint view. The zoomed out view would allow me to see, with a single button press, the overall progress on a route. The next waypoint view is what is really missing in the modern Suunto UI. There are workarounds but in my opinion they all are less usable compared to a dedicated view. The View button would also be useful in some parts of the UI that require tapping on the screen, and if the touch is disabled those parts of the UI are inaccessible.
The Backlight button also worked as the Back button throughout the UI. The same can now be achieved by a long press on the Next button, but I find that less intuitive.

freeheeler

@brad_olwin
in watch customization for S9B it was possible to choose bigger buttons, like the Titanium X-Alps has. Maybe something like that could be a solution?
This of course would end up in more unwanted button presses… no clue how this side effect could be solved

surfboomerang

@freeheeler I think a new S9P Extreme Edition is the answer.
No buttons at all. Just gesture and speech control.