9 ms·

The “it looks like you’ve blah blah” example is terrible, imo. The last thing I’d want to deal with after a hard fall is this chatter. The correct way to do it

• HL33tibCe7 4y ago
  Strong disagree. “Did you just fall?” is more confusing: in that case, the watch is not directly telling you what it thinks happened; instead, it is asking a leading question. It’s way less clear. You’re relying on implication to convey the fact that the watch thinks you’ve fallen, rather than just saying it. If you’ve hit your head and are concussed, that extra level of indirection and confusion that your question introduces could have a significant effect on the outcome of the situation.
  • bruce343434 4y ago
    I don't understand your point of view. There is no indirection. It's just a simple question, yes or no, did you just fall?
    • Hackbraten 4y ago
      It’s entirely unclear to me what the consequences of the yes/no choice would be. Furthermore, falling is not binary, so there’s the question about where the boundary is. In an emergency situation, I don’t want to have to deal with any of this. It’s terrible UX.
      • bruce343434 4y ago
        So maybe a message like "Call emergency services?" "Yes" "No" Although it removes the context of the watch' reasoning.
        • nkrisc 4y ago
          "Fall detected. Call {911 || regionally appropriate number/name}?"
          • marvel_boy 4y ago
            Exactly.
          • nippoo 4y ago
            Again "fall detected" is quite un-human and mechanical. Is this a technical term? Who/what fell? Are you talking about the season? I think the existing Apple language is good and has clearly been through a lot of discussion!
            • Karunamon 4y ago
              As befits a nonhuman, mechanical device like a watch.
              • airstrike 4y ago
                Which makes it sound like the watch fell, not me
                • Karunamon 4y ago
                  Given the consensus understanding of physics and gravity, it did. It just so happened that it was attached to a larger thing that also fell, and the larger thing likely either knows it and can comprehend this message trivially, or does not and summoning help is the proper action to take. Reminder that the screen is a false positive protection mechanism and will only ever be seen in a specific context.
                  • airstrike 4y ago
                    Sorry, but that's just a pedantic take when we're discussing what is the best UI /UX for wearers to know how to instinctively react in a possibly stressful moment. You have to solve for the lowest common denominator, not the hacker's technically correct preference. This ain't about the watch falling, it's about someone possibly needing to call emergency services and contacts when they're hurt. "I'm OK" is a great prompt in that context, even if it's not an explicitly accurate response to whether the watch or wearer fell (which in turn is why the focus is not on the fall but on their need for help).
    • nkrisc 4y ago
      But what is it going to do if I answer yes? If I did fall but don't need medical attention, is answering "yes" going call emergency services anyway? I don't want that. But if I lie and answer "no", is it going to somehow modify its detection criteria and not work the next time I fall and really do need help? I don't know, I have no idea what it will do. Besides, it's all a moot point because it's the wrong question to ask. It doesn't really matter if you actually fell or not. It detected what it "thinks" was likely a fall and the real question to ask is: do you need help? If you turn the corner and see someone laying on the ground, do you ask them if they they just fell, or do you ask them if they need help?
• Aeolun 4y ago
  Don’t worry, this setting is so sensitive that you’ve likely seen the screen a few tens of times before you are actually in a hard fall.
• arrrg 4y ago
  Your prompt doesn’t take into account what this feature actually does. Asking whether you did fall is not really the right question in that situation. For example: I did have a serious fall (that hurt a lot) with my bike that triggered this feature – but I was conscious afterwards and seemed somewhat ok. As such I didn’t want my watch to make an SOS call (dialing emergency services and contacting my emergency contacts). I wanted to give myself time to assess the situation first. However, I did fall and the Watch correctly detected that fall. So to this yes/no question I would have to technically answer yes. In that context the “I’m OK” button is actually pretty great. It works both if you didn’t actually fall (a false positive) and also if you did fall but it’s not serious enough to call an ambulance. (If you say I’m OK it actually asks follow up questions to determine whether it was a false positive or whether you did actually fall.) When the watch detects a fall there is a countdown and noise and vibration and after that the watch will make an SOS call automatically. As such it‘s not so important to make it super clear and easy to make that SOS call manually. In that context it seems like a fine tradeoff to me to prevent accidentally making that SOS call. I think it‘s exactly right for the watch to put front and center why it’s doing what it‘s doing in those situations, while also making it very clear that there can be false positives.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
• diebeforei485 4y ago
  It isn't static. It jiggles a bit to show it's moving.
• layer8 4y ago
  I agree that the “It looks like you’ve…” informal-chatty style is terrible. It’s hilarious that they describe it as “straightforward and direct”. It should rather be something short and matter-of-fact like “Hard fall detected.”
  • senttoschool 4y ago
    The tone of "Hard fall detected" is good if you're developing a product where precision and accuracy matters most such as in the military or in some high stake business situations. But the Apple Watch is a consumer product. Also, the watch did not detect a hard fall. It merely saw signals that suggests it could be a fall. So "It looks like you've" is more accurate and friendly to consumers..
• m3kw9 4y ago
  Asking a yes or no after you hit your head may get confusing and dismiss a quick call
• gowld 4y ago
  I only got as far as the distracting needlessly too-small corner margins. Is everything on Apple Watch that ugly? On Swiping, though, it's kind of a lost cause on iOS/WatchOS. If you don't know to do the goofy swipes everywhere, your experience is miserable.
• LeoPanthera 4y ago
  > The original message doesn’t even mention it’s a swipe. The actual message includes a countdown which automatically makes an SOS call if you do nothing.
• senttoschool 4y ago
  I'm guessing that a great deal of this warning is false positive. Thus, using "Did you fall?" when a false positive occurs doesn't provide enough context for the alert. Remember that the Apple Watch is just guessing. Hence, using "It looks like" is more appropriate. Otherwise, a tech illiterate senior might not understand why the Apple is suddenly asking if he/she fell so directly when there is a false positive. I like Apple's version more.
  • gowld 4y ago
    "I think you fell". "Fall detected" "Sudden motion - Injury suspected".
    • DiggyJohnson 4y ago
      No first person language please. My iDevice shouldn't be saying "I think..." about anything. This is both a personal preference and, I suspect, better "design"/language.
      • mayoff 4y ago
        Don’t anthropomorphize computers. They hate that.
    • senttoschool 4y ago
      "I think you fell". --> The Watch is an "I" now? Creepy. "Fall detected" --> which is not technically correct. The watch didn't detect a fall. The watch is only seeing signals that suggest you might have fallen. "Sudden motion - Injury suspected". --> There are probably many data points fed into an algorithm that detects falling so saying one of those factors, "sudden motion" is not accurate. "Injury suspected" is vague. Who did the Watch suspected had an injury? And not every fall results in an injury. The watch shouldn't be suspecting an injury unless it uses its sensors to detect an injury. I still think Apple's version is the best out of any of the alternatives suggested here. I guess that's why most people here are developers - not HCI/UX people.
• urbandw311er 4y ago
  I mostly agree with you on this one. But regarding “swipe for help”: typically I avoid UI labels that reference the action to be taken (“tap”, “swipe”, etc). Good UI design should render the action obvious - a button should look tappable, a slider slidable and so on. That way the label can use its minimal estate to focus on describing the action instead. “Swipe for help” might also be suitably ambiguous that some users think it means “get help” in the sense of an info page, or assistance. I’d go with something like “(SOS) Make emergency call” or regional equivalent. Combined with a more obviously swipable UI design. Ideally then usability test on 50 people to seen if it works!
  • kdkwsndne 4y ago
    To be fair to the parent the label was: > ((SOS) swipe for help)
  • 411111111111111 4y ago
    > Good UI design should render the action obvious - a button should look tappable, a slider slidable and so on That's basically what every designer says. What these people usually forget is that these intuitive Interfaces are only intuitive for people that think like them. Nothing about that screenshot indicates that I'd have to swipe to take action. There is a very high chance I'd be unable to figure it out in a stressful situation while hurting... Unless I've already encountered the same interface in a less stressful environment. The SOS could just be a button with the label to the right.
    • elondaits 4y ago
      That swipeable element is standard in the Apple Watch UI vocabulary. It only needs to be intuitive for Apple Watch users. It’s not a button to avoid an accidental press, because the false positive means emergency services are dispatched… and with enough false positives, the service stops being useful (wolf crying).
      • peoplefromibiza 4y ago
        > It’s not a button to avoid an accidental press so if I actually fell and broke my thumb, I won't be able to easily activate it. Swiping is a terrible gesture, nothing related to "emergency" should be linked to swiping. It's much better to put there a "DID NOT FALL" button than a swipable element to avoid false positives. False positives are still better than false negatives, in these circumstances.
• tshaddox 4y ago
  A yes or no question doesn’t make much sense when there isn’t a way to respond to that question. And even if there was, perhaps to help train Apple’s detection algorithm, that really shouldn’t be the main call to action. The point of the feature isn’t to impress you with how accurately it detected falls. It’s to get you help if you need it.