4 ms·

Might be an age thing, but the circular dial is completely intuitive if you've learned how to read an analog clock at a young age. Unlike the widget described

by jfim 8y ago

Might be an age thing, but the circular dial is completely intuitive if you've learned how to read an analog clock at a young age. Unlike the widget described in the article, it doesn't snap in 5 minute increments for the minutes, which makes it a bit more finnicky, but otherwise 6:15 am is just a tap at 6 (south) and 15 (east).

ge0rg 8y ago
The Android widget is a huge design fail. If you accidentally touch the wrong hour, or get into PM instead of AM, you have no way to correct. It became bearable to use once I forced myself to always swipe the hours and minutes until it read the right value, and to lift the finger then. It's still not as bad as the Samsung and iOS vertical dial with 60 options, though. My old Symbian phone (pre touch) allowed to just type the desired alarm time on the keyboard. I could blindly set an alarm. Those were the times...
- jfim 8y ago
  I just tried it again on Android 9 (Pie), and as you say, it's definitely crappier if you're using AM/PM (my local settings have it on 24 hour time display), since there's an extra tap required for AM/PM and one could miss it and set an alarm for 6 PM instead of 6 AM. This may be more intuitive to someone used to a 12 hour locale. That being said, in the alarm clock dialog, if you add a new alarm, there's a button that allows the user to type in the time using a keyboard (there's a keyboard icon to the bottom left), the first tap allows you to select the hour (shows both 0-12 and 13-23 if the locale is set to 24 hour clock), another tap will select the minute. If you're on 12 hour clock, you may need to change between AM/PM by tapping it. Tapping either the minute or the hour will allow changing that value. Other than having the 5 minute snap on tap (as TFA points out, who really wants an alarm at 6:01 or 5:59?), it seems as if it allows all possible interactions, where the user can pick whatever input modality they want.
int_19h 8y ago
I have learned how to read an analog clock at young age, since that's all we had - even wristwatches were a luxury. But it's still much easier to set the alarm on a digital clock.

by jfim 8y ago

ge0rg 8y ago

The Android widget is a huge design fail. If you accidentally touch the wrong hour, or get into PM instead of AM, you have no way to correct. It became bearable to use once I forced myself to always swipe the hours and minutes until it read the right value, and to lift the finger then. It's still not as bad as the Samsung and iOS vertical dial with 60 options, though. My old Symbian phone (pre touch) allowed to just type the desired alarm time on the keyboard. I could blindly set an alarm. Those were the times...

jfim 8y ago
I just tried it again on Android 9 (Pie), and as you say, it's definitely crappier if you're using AM/PM (my local settings have it on 24 hour time display), since there's an extra tap required for AM/PM and one could miss it and set an alarm for 6 PM instead of 6 AM. This may be more intuitive to someone used to a 12 hour locale. That being said, in the alarm clock dialog, if you add a new alarm, there's a button that allows the user to type in the time using a keyboard (there's a keyboard icon to the bottom left), the first tap allows you to select the hour (shows both 0-12 and 13-23 if the locale is set to 24 hour clock), another tap will select the minute. If you're on 12 hour clock, you may need to change between AM/PM by tapping it. Tapping either the minute or the hour will allow changing that value. Other than having the 5 minute snap on tap (as TFA points out, who really wants an alarm at 6:01 or 5:59?), it seems as if it allows all possible interactions, where the user can pick whatever input modality they want.

int_19h 8y ago

I have learned how to read an analog clock at young age, since that's all we had - even wristwatches were a luxury. But it's still much easier to set the alarm on a digital clock.