Roman numeral digital watch face, anyone?

Following on from a whole series of DataFields where I have tried to make it easier for middle-aged people with fading eyesight, like me, to read and use their watches, I thought I could reuse my very, very large digital font from the "Huge Font" fields ( apps.garmin.com/.../5d0d5649-7b67-4923-9e28-610b0f950cef ) but I was also curious about what Roman numerals would look like on Garmin...

So I have combined both very, very large font with Roman numerals to come up with what has turned out to be a really nice, really simple, really readable (if you can translate Roman numerals...) watch face here:

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/21103f58-05ed-4f99-8853-47b7a9afab92

What do you think?

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9635560 over 5 years ago

Oops! Had a typo... IX was showing as VIV... all fixed.

dpawlyk over 5 years ago

The big Arabic numbers don't seem very legible at all in the second link.

Varying the height of the characters isn't likely to increase legibility (it works against all the "training" people have reading same-sized characters).

It works with the Roman numbers reasonably well.

(Roman numerals are odd.)

9635560 over 5 years ago in reply to dpawlyk

Point taken on the varying character height, and I in fact limited the maximum difference in an earlier version.

Everything is a compromise, though!

The varying heights in Huge Font fields are really intended for top and bottom slots where, otherwise, the entire string would be unreadably small. Most slots are essentially fixed height, and way bigger than Garmin fonts. Allowing variability means it is possible to have at least some characters large enough to see without my glasses!

Roman numerals are, indeed, weird. I’ve been driving my wife nuts with it... I’m just about getting up to speed translating into numbers I understand, but I still find I read XXI as 21 and then need to think again before I get to 9PM whereas, with Arabic numerals, I see 21 and think 9PM without any additional processing.

Anyway, it was fun building and I like it. ;)

dpawlyk over 5 years ago in reply to 9635560

The time in the first link is OK.

But the large digit in the middle doesn't make it more legible because you still have to read the other digits to get the time. Being bigger is also a suggestion that it's more "important" or "significant", when that isn't really the case. It also elongates the character in a way that makes it disproportional compared to how the character is usually seen (which works against legibility).

Of course, some people might like it aesthetically (which is fine).

================================

"but I still find I read XXI as 21 and then need to think again before I get to 9PM"

You are a masochist.

"Anyway, it was fun building and I like it. ;)"

That's a good enough reason. If people like the app, that's even better.

9635560 over 5 years ago in reply to dpawlyk

You are right about the significance- it might make more sense to know that the time is actually a pace.

Eg: I know I run between a 4:00km and a 6:00 km, so the first digit I can pretty much know just by how hard I’m running - it’s usually a 5! By making the seconds bigger, I can get a pretty good idea of pace at a glance.

dpawlyk over 5 years ago in reply to 9635560

Pace or time-of-day, the first digit is the most significant.

I'm going to suggest that "legibility" is a technical requirement (even if it's a bit fuzzy). Extending what is familiar will tend to increase legibility. Bigger is not always better.

I don't think it's a compromise.