- Allow locking/unlocking the touch screen with a quick "double press" of the side button. Pressing the side button twice quickly in succession would automatically lock the screen if unlocked, or unlock it if locked. Kinda like how modern Android devices jump to the camera when you press the power button twice quickly, it would be a lot faster than long-presses. It's also a gesture that is unlikely to trigger accidentally.
- Allow scrolling between widgets with the side-swipe when the touch screen is locked. It's not very likely that this would trigger accidentally even in intense activities, it's really only accidental touches where the problem lies. Allowing side-swipe to work with the touch screen locked lets the user browse widgets any time while still keeping it locked against accidental touches.
- Change the visual feedback of "screen is locked" to something more subtle: When the touch screen is locked, whenever the screen is touched a big lock icon appears in the middle. Problem: when your watch face is digital, the lock icon appears right on top of the time and obstructs it. So if you are at night, and want to check what time is it, you tap on the screen to bring the backlight on, and you get greeted with an icon obstructing the time. Proposal: Change this "screen is locked" feedback to something that doesn't obstruct info on the screen so abruptly. For example, show a smaller lock icon on the bottom, or a "ring" surrounding the watch face, when the screen is touched if it's locked.
- More metrics in heart rate widget (before tapping): I appreciate the in-device graphs of this widget, but the upper part of the widget seems a little underutilized, no? How about in addition to the current real-time heart rate, your current average RHR was shown next to or below it? And perhaps daily min/max as well?
- Discount last day from Avg RHR: When you tap the heart rate widget, you are taken to the last 7 days average RHR graph, which is pretty cool, but I noticed that the current day is used to calculate the average. This skews it a bit since depending on how long it's been since midnight there may not have been enough time to fetch the real resting heart rate for the present day. Proposal: Calculate the average RHR with full days only (i.e., exclude today). That way the Avg 7d RHR is always consistent regardless your current day.
- Allow developers to show more data in watch faces and widgets: See my post here. This is more of an SDK issue than usability, but still worthwhile for better watch faces and widgets in the future.
Also, I know this sounds stupid but just in case it's necessary: I grant Garmin a perpetual, royalty-free and irrevocable license to use any of what I wrote here for any purpose without expectation of any credit or remuneration in return.
