Ostensibly, the changes in the new Apple Watch Series 7 are very subtle; a 1mm increase in size and a semi-curved OLED display. But those changes are “a major technical innovation” says Apple executive. In an interview with The Independent, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, Stan Ng, and vice president of interface design Alan Dye shed light on the challenges the teams faced when developing the new larger display of Apple Watch Series 7 “which has consequences for design.”
Apple Watch Series 7 presented a unique challenge for the teams to increase the display without compromising design, comfort, and other factors
Ng explained that are larger display is a huge benefit to users for it shows more information at a glance. However, it is easier said than done. The challenge to increase the display size of the Apple Watch Series 7 without compromising its design, comfort, battery life, and band compatibility was a unique one because “every single pixel counts”.
So, the design team were faced with questions such as how you maximize screen area without significantly growing the overall case size. “It’s a unique challenge. It required completely re-engineering the display, the front crystal, the internals, and the internal enclosure.
And these changes resulted in reducing the border from 3mm on Series 6, to just 1.7mm on Series 7. The new design saw the case size grow by 1mm, but the display by nearly 20 per cent.
The design teams expanded the viewable area of the new Series 7 without significantly increasing the overall size by integrating the touch sensor into the OLED panel. Dye said that gave Apple an opportunity to optimize the design of the entire experience like creating a more clear and accessible UI, encompassing watch faces, and introducing a new QWERTY keyboard onscreen for text entry for the first time.
Commending what Alan and his design team have achieved with the new display and design of the Apple Watch Series 7, Ng concluded that every change is carefully crafted to enhance users’ experience. And vowed that Apple will continue to innovate Apple Watch in the future as a device to not only connect but allow users to focus on their fitness, health, and more.
“The wrist has unique challenges, you can’t just slap a huge display on your wrist and assume that someone can wear it all day long, or wear it to any occasion, that’s not going to work. This small size really puts a constraint on what and how much information can be shown at any given time and there can’t be any wasted space.
Alan and his team really innovate in this area to make sure that the user experience is so phenomenal. And we’ll continue to innovate in all of those areas. In addition to those key functionalities with the Watch in terms of connecting people, fitness and it being that intelligent guardian for your health. All of what we believe has been so impactful.”
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