The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face by Alex Pan Yong is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 Bronze A' Design Award in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Competition Category.
BronzeInterface· 2021
The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face
Client: Artalex
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Interface Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #124107The Design
About The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face
A natural way to read time. The English and numbers go together, form a futuristic look and feel. The layout of the dial let user gets the information on battery, date, daily steps in a quick way. With multiple colour themes, the overall look and feel is suitable for both casual looking and sporty looking smart watches.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The primary principle behind the design is the fusion of functionality and artistic aesthetics. The inspiration stems from combining postmodernist and futuristic elements with everyday practicality, aiming to create a timepiece that appeals to both business and casual users.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
The focus was to create a visually captivating and user-friendly interface while enhancing the wearer’s emotional and practical engagement with time. The goal was to make a design that stands out but remains functional across different settings.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I plan to further refine and adapt the design for broader compatibility across smartwatch platforms. There’s also potential for collaborations with smartwatch brands to produce exclusive editions.
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to displaying time in The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face combines written text with numerals - what inspired this unique fusion of traditional and modern time-telling methods?
This fusion was inspired by the desire to make time-telling more intuitive and approachable. Written text evokes a human, conversational feel, while numerals ensure precision. By combining the two, I aimed to create a design that feels both personal and functional. This approach bridges the familiarity of traditional analog time-reading with the convenience of digital technology, enhancing the watch’s usability across generations and preferences.
How did winning the Bronze A' Design Award in Interface Design influence your perspective on The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face's potential impact on smartwatch interface design?
Winning the award validated my efforts to push boundaries in smartwatch interface design. It encouraged me to think even further about how innovative design can set new standards for user engagement in wearable tech. The recognition reaffirmed that there is a strong appetite for interfaces that balance functionality with aesthetic appeal, pushing me to explore even bolder concepts in future projects.
The English Numbers Smartwatch Watch Face evolved through multiple versions before reaching its final form - could you walk us through the key insights and user feedback that shaped each iteration?
Each iteration was influenced by user feedback emphasizing readability, battery efficiency, and simplicity. Early versions experimented with more detailed graphics, but users preferred a cleaner, more minimal look. Through feedback, I learned the importance of reducing visual clutter while maintaining essential information. Iterations also improved readability by adjusting font sizes and contrast, ensuring the design was not only visually appealing but also practical for daily use.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- An easy-to-read and unique watch face for smart watch. The reading of time consists of English and numbers to let user read the time in a natural way. The layout of the dial is unique while user still can get the information on battery, date, daily steps in a quick way.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 400px, Height 400px. Support Samsung Gear watches (Gear S2, S3, Sports, Galaxy Watch) and all Android smart watches (WatchMaker app needed on the watch to load up the watch face)
- Tags
- futuristic, business, casual, informative
- Production Technology
- The actual product has two versions (same design). It can be obtained from Samsung Gear Store and from WatchMaker app. The native Samsung Gear version is for Samsung Gear watch users. It was developed with GalaxyWatchDesigner, a tool for developing watch face from Samsung. URL: https://t.co/0N1zt1nGRy The WatchMaker version is for WatchMaker app user. It can be downloaded from WatchMaker app and sync into your smart watch (WatchMaker app needed on your watch). URL: http://www.getwatchmaker.com/watch/sB1x8P9h7X
- Design Challenge
- The challenge during development is how to code the switch (for WatchMaker version) to change the colour. Because I just started using WatchMaker app for a short time. Still exploring the Lua language for coding. As I was making more and more watch faces, technical problems were solved.
- Research
- I was playing with text and numbers, trying to figure out a nice way to display time, but it needs to be different from those traditional digital watch. Then came out with a very simple version (version 1), only shows English and numbers with a battery bar below them. After wearing for a few weeks, I got some comments from friends. They want to add in other information such as weather, date, month, steps, etc. Then I started to think about the layout, the feeling. Try to make the dial more user-friendly. After a few months of experiment, from version 2 to version 4, finally came out the current design. So I name it "English And Numbers IV". While providing the most-wanted information, the dial still has the futuristic feeling. The tool I used is WatchMaker app. I directly developed it in the app. Once finalised the design, I started developing the Samsung Tizen native version. The feedbacks from Samsung App Store are very good. People love it.
- Inspiration
- The reason of doing this watch face is that I do not like the stock ones in my smart watch. Those are just very common and traditional. I need a cool and unique feeling. It should be easy to read and informative, at the same time, stands out among those traditional ones. The inspiration is the way of people read out the time. For example, 10:45, people read it "Ten forty five". Then here comes the design: TEN45.
- Project Duration
- The project started in May 2017 and finished in July 2018 in Singapore.
- Operation Flow
- For Samsung Tizen native version, just tap anywhere to change the colour. For WatchMaker version, tap the small dot at the right lower corner (below month) to change the theme.
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Alex Pan Yong, 2021.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Pan Yong, Main image, 2021.
Image #2: Photographer Pan Yong, Group shot, 2021.
Image #3: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2021.
Image #4: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2021.
Image #5: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2021.
Sponsored
Explore Beyond Designers.org
Discover products, services and opportunities from our advertising partners.
More to Explore
Related Designs
Explore more award-winning designs from the same category, selected by merit.
