Show HN: Timely for Apple Watch – Scheduling and time tracking on your wrist

by matmik • 11 years ago

39 11 11 years ago

matmik5• 11 years ago

It's been both terrifying and a whole lot of fun to design for the Apple Watch. It's uncharted territory, which I cherish. But it's also weird to launch something and not being able to test if before everyone else does.

Anyhow, there will be a lot of useless apps made for this thing, but we feel that this product was made for Timely! It's such a natural extension for a time tracking and scheduling app.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

dirtae• 11 years ago

We chose not to build an Apple Watch app prior to its launch precisely because it difficult to do good design and engineering for a device that you don't have and have never used:

http://blog.anylistapp.com/2015/04/why-anylist-is-not-availa...

'Qantas's predicament serves as a sort of warning for developing an app for the Watch before actually having the device in hands to test. Qantas's lead app designer, Gabriel Santos, echoed a similar sentiment of difficulty in developing the app, describing the entire ordeal of building and creating the app without the Watch "a scary process."

"We initially locked in a concept but when trying it on the actual device, it didn't work as well as I thought it would," he said.'

matmik5• 11 years ago

Good blogpost, and it's a very, very valid point. I read the HIG up and down so many times and kept changing the UI.

The best way I ended up trying to get a "feel" of how this would work, was to add the designs to Flinto on an iPod touch, then covering up the rest of the screen except for the Apple Watch size. That way we could scroll around, etc. It worked for the feel of the size, but it's not a replacement for the real world use of it, of course.

There were definitively a few ah-ha moments when using it for the first time on an actual device, but I do feel we hit the experience pretty well. Apple has also featured the app as one of the best new apps for the Apple Watch, which is pretty awesome :) But yeah, completely understand your reasoning.

flippyhead• 11 years ago

Looks great. Your design is always among the best.

matmik5• 11 years ago

Thank you for saying that! Much appreciated :)

hiharryhere• 11 years ago

Looks great!

One question - can regular apps use the digital crown? I was wondering why you chose + and - buttons to set an entry duration rather than spinning the dial. Or am I misreading the screenshots?

nathancahill• 11 years ago

matmik5• 11 years ago

Regular apps can't use it – yet. I'm guessing we'll be able to come WWDC. That's why had to add those buttons you mentioned.

midnightmonster• 11 years ago

I've been a daily timely user since August 1 2014. At the moment, they're still recovering from a major update that shipped with tons of bugs, and core functionality is still missing. (Most of all, there's no visual planning anymore.)

Timely has been one of my most important tools for managing time and tasks as a freelancer, but right now it's barely functional.

I hope to someday use it on my wrist, but I need the core app features working.

matmik5• 11 years ago

Midnight, thank you so much for using it this long! That is seriously valued big time, and we appreciate it a lot! The visual stuff for planning is literally right around the corner. You'll have it this weekend or next week!

There were indeed some bugs that have since been squashed :)

hn_user2• 11 years ago

Looks very nice. Will check it out.

Also noting as an alternative for planning is omnifocus. But this also looks very promising.

Show HN: Timely for Apple Watch – Scheduling and time tracking on your wrist

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