Everything You Should Know about Apple iWatch App Components

The Apple iWatch is gaining the place among hottest trends in personal consumer electronics. People are finding it as the one of the most dynamic devices ever introduced by Apple due to its ability to interface with your iPhone and the existing apps, apart from many other built-in abilities it has. So, being a programmer, what are the key factors that one should keep in mind while programming an iWatch?

Whether you are a veteran programmer or have competent knowledge in Swift, it doesn’t imply that you are innately great at working or dealing with the iWatch.

Why? Well, the answer here lies in its interface because the iWatch is designed for a telling a story in a distinct fashion from that of a smartphone, and it is much more independent, possess a complimenting style. Many programmers find it a new and challenging concept to design the mobile applications that could encompass the iWatch contents and detailing the user flow while using the iWatch can be difficult, but once you will stick to it, nothing will be so fascinating.

To help you get a hang of tasks, there are some crucial factors about iWatch that you should ponder while programming. Not to forget, the screen of iWatch is not static; it is a dynamic user interface instead that responds quite differently to what you are not similar enough.

1)   Notifications: The notifications on watch communicate instant, high-value information with quick interactions. They are designed such that you can view the information in short looks and long looks. Both the appearances depend upon the time period user keep his wrist up or down. Whenever user raises his/her wrist the short look appears with brief yet meaningful information about the particular notification. When the wrist is lowered down, the short look disappears.

And, when wrist remains raised for a little long, the wearer will get more details about the notification through the long look. There is an additional advantage of customising the interface of app’s long look such as including animations; photos, extra content, and a colour palette while you can customise only titles in short look as per your preferences.

2)   Glances: The Glances are often referred as the collection of some important schedules or precious days that can be browsed through the favourite apps of the wearer. To put simple, glances simply provide a quick look of favourite content. It is not necessary that there will be a glance for every app. People can choose the ones that they want to display. Keeping some simple things in mind would help to create great glances:

1. They should be relevant and offering value.

2. They should be quick and readable.

3. They should be left aligned for visual consistency.

Inconsistency and irrelevance are the major factors that force the wearer to remove a glance as they could not see things in place.

3)   WatchKit Apps: These apps give wearer much more detailed information than they could get through glances or the notifications. In short, the WatchKit app complements the iOS app. You can use this app for displaying significant information and to leverage interactions along with the information. Further, you can reap the advantage of Handoff to send the tasks back to your iOS app as required.

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4)   Navigation: There can be more than one screen in a Watchkit app. In such a case, you can choose the model of navigation that best suits your preferences – Page-Based or Hierarchical.

1. Page-Based Navigation: It comes handy for the flat collection of information that has relevant items. In this sort of navigation, each item will be displayed on an individual page (i.e. in vertical alignment). Wearer can swipe the pages whereby dots indicate the number of pages. Here, it is preferred to use fewer pages as scrolling a large set of pages would be time-consuming.

2. b. Hierarchical Navigation: It suits best for displaying a navigable list of options or for interfaces of master detail. In this, when a user taps on information, a new screen appears open up containing the master details of the same. Integrating too many levels may confuse you, keep it minimum.

5)   Modal Sheets: A modal sheet is used for giving people a choice to respond a particular action. The top-left corner is designated for the close button that simply performs the dismiss function. The close button always appears in white.

6)   Hands-Off: Whenever a wearer wants to display his current activity on other devices, the hands-off functionality of iWatch can be used. It is initiated by swiping off the app icon on the lock screen of iOS device. When iOS receives the request, it picks up the forwarded information for continuing the task initiated.

This was a brief about the components of Apple iWatch that every programmer should know about.

Author Bio: The author, Macy Jones, is currently associated with AppXperts, Melbourne as a Senior App Developer. She keeps on updating fellow developers about newest trends through her regular informative posts.

#Apple #iOSApplications