If it's not broken, don't fix it. The old version with the collapsed list view gave a really nice and fast overview of all the important metrics. Now in version 5 there is no overview and you have to scroll up and down and left and right to see what you could see in one page before. Please let us have version 4 back.
I really don't like the new design: the combination of horizontal and vertical scrolling makes the app harder to use than it was before. Having two cards side-by-side in the "at a glance" section instead of two horizontal cards in the same space is harder to read, and the excess whitespace, while it may be on-trend, isn't great for those of us who want to see stats - which is why we use Garmin! I really like Des's suggestion of a "Today" section similar to "Last Week", with expanding cards. But the "in focus" section - having to horizontally scroll... nope
Agree - he hits on all the fundamental usability issues with the new UI. And the at a glance/tap to reveal is just smart. For me, it just feels like the new UI requires me to tap and scroll several more times then I used to in order to get to the same old data.
Bad to worse. 😂 Hope Garmin listens. I’ve been using Garmin for many years. I don’t understand how they can make it worse. Reading good things about the Suunto app and Race watch. Sure like the price point so going to give Suunto a shot. 😊
I think Garmin should allow users the option to select the old style home page in the settings menu - so those that enjoy the new interface can use it and those that don't can continue using the old version they are used to
I agree. I noticed that I don't use Garmin Connect nearly as much as I used to.
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Love Garmin but I’ve always thought they have the worst UI design out there. They really need to invest in talented designers. Agree with your comments about the the new update. Also sent them my feedback that the desktop layout makes poor use of space.
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I think from UX and design perspective the new app is utter garbage. This is what happens to you if you have too big of a grip on the market and can't feel the pressure of competition strongly enough. Only market can fix this, only people simply choosing NOT TO use this and go for competition. I've had so many encounters with the levels of arrogance of Garmin's tech support that I don't really attempt to send them any feedback, it's not worth it. Their attitude is "we know best, we are Garmin you lowly creature". If ANY OTHER sports watch manufacturer on the market came up with this design people would laugh them out of the door but for some reason when Garmin does it people cautiously offer them "suggestions"... 🤡
Agree 100%. Not just UI. Their software in general. They still can’t get rerouting right even on Edge 1040. Every other GPS I have owned does rerouting right. Just one example.
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@@sdanjohn Yes, my Edge 540 is also laughably incompetent at even the most trivial rerouting tasks. It's pathethic that Garmin, of all companies, has issues with this.
The old UI looked nice in the app I think. The new one looks ugly. Its like some have gone to a bootcamp for a week and tried to design a webpage first day at work.
Sorry coming from Apple Health I think Apple does even a worse job. Yes it looks maybe better but the UX of the Apple Health app is so bad ... I had to buy an extra app to show me the Apple Health data better. I never saw the old Garmin UI as I moved just this week but it's definitely not the worst imo
I am going to be a bit mean, but it feels like a diversity hire has been in charge for the UI. See this at many companies since last year now, atleast TH-cam reverted their new UI after a big backlash from users that it was so much worse.
What I'd like is the "Last 7 days" tile to be dynamic, so you can switch through last 7, 30, 360 days and also swipe through historic data. That's what I'd need to see my progress or decline over time. Everything else is superfluous to me.
Having used Connect 5.0 for 5 months now I completely agree with your proposal for layout. An over at the top with click to drill down is standard format and requires little user app defined knowledge, fundamental to a good UI. After 5 months I still open 5.0 and think - "right, what am I looking at and for!"
@garmin the main fault with the App is that it is impossible to find a past activity on the calendar. We can’t search by name neither by date. The only way to navigate on the calendar is to go month by month and it is a pain to search for an activity you did a year ago… it’s nonsense. Pleeeaasseeee fix this with useful filters and ad a search bar on the calendar, please! Ps: maybe you can take inspiration from Coros with the function to mirror the watch on the phone to have a bigger screen in some specific situations, for example, while exploring the map while hiking.
I miss having a better full summery on the main screen vs having to swipe the In Focus, etc. You have some great ideas on improvements, I'd vastly prefer them over the current. Let's hope Garmin is listening! Oh, and if they are... New Edge 1040plus/1050 coming?🙏
I think one of the bigger problems has been the conflating of phone/app version, and the desktop one. On the desktop one, which I prefer to use, I like to see those tiles you used to be able to bring in on stuff like the calendar week ahead, my PRs, the mileage on individual pairs of shoes, not to mention the previous activities. Now all that stuff is gone, so you end up spending more time moving through the menus....
I tested the BETA, at first I was skeptical, but once I customized the views to the information I wanted to see I liked it. The information I care and want to see is there at a glance, I don’t have to click on it to drill down.
The simplicity of how Strava present kms/hrs/fitness stats/goals on their 'Progress' tab wins hands down for me who is only using Edge units to record rides. The irony being I have less stress by not tracking stress levels and worrying about the quality of the health data I'm uploading. 😉I can see where this is heading for Garmin though. 24/7 health tracking is a very effective hook into an ecosystem. How soon until we see premium Connect features offered as a subscription tier? TIL they're already doing this for golf.
Strava does have a great dashboard page in regards to the Progress tab but I wish the "You" tab still went to the profile page! 😂 In regards to subscriptions for health features, they seem to have a firm stance on not going to a subscription model for health data but you are correct for the golf features.
@@DesFit I'm glad to hear that because I specifically jumped over to Garmin from Fitbit so I didn't have to pay exorbitant fees for the data I was already collecting.
I was asked by Garmin to Beta test V5. I told them then that all the blocks are much too big with too little data, as opposed to the previous. I disagree that there's more information than before. At least it feels that there is less. The new layout requires far too much scrolling and sliding to get to what you want to see. I much prefer the previous version.
I think your mockup is much better than what Garmin has given us. I turned off the In Focus section because I don't like part of the screen scrolling sideways and then other parts are scrolling up and down. I feel like this was a case of Garmin changing things just to say that they changed the app.
I was part of the Beta testing and quickly discovered that turning all the "In Focus" features etc off was what worked best for me as I really preferred the old layout and this is the closest I think I can get to it. I like your suggestions though and agree that a big customizable overview, that can be tapped on for detailed info on each parameter, would be a nice option.
I was part of the Beta, I really really tried to like the new system and waited and waited before giving my feedback because I didn't have positive feedback an I didn't want to be one of those people that just complained about change. I just don't like it. I preferred the older system and being able to choose what data I could see on the screen and tap into. I sell many Garmin products in my job and the ap now is harder to navigate, and not as easy to sell to customers as part of the package that Garmin provides when you buy a watch. Your mockup is good, and would have been a better direction to go I think.
If you were part of the beta you should have told them straight away that is worse. That is what I have done when Microsoft reached out and asked about a change in a software. Not sure they listen, but atleast I could tell them things gotten worse.
@@AndrewTSqplenty of beta testers provided their feedback about how bad it is. The writing was in the wall. Garmin was making the change regardless. Pathetic
I share your same thoughts. The watches are information dense; they should consider retaining such detail in the mobile app. That in a sense is a great "Glance" - every detail you want to see for the day in one view. No panning through tiles and no scrolling the page required. I also agree with you that the decision to now make the website dashboard a 'mirror' of the phone very odd indeed considering the real-estate of the screen. Further, people go to the website typically for even more information dense details. And can they at some point allow offline sync with the devices? Every time their servers have a minor hiccup for a few hours, the app is useless. Even Polar and Suunto apps perform offline sync.
I really agree with you on the different point you brought up. We now get more information, but the sections takes up way too much space. To get to the information I have to scroll way too much, and that’s quite annoying. Also, when looking at activities for the last 7 days, my indoor climbing sessions are now categorized as strength workouts, and that’s just not correct. I love more data/information, but the sections need to be slimmed down quite a bit. Also, I like to be able to have more of a choice on what to see on screen from all the data panels. But definitely keep yesterday, and the last 7 days info.
I don't mind the makeover (honestly it makes next to zero difference in my mind), but I'd really appreciate it if the phone app updated with data from the watch better. For example, after a workout the Training Readiness displayed on the phone remains the same as in the morning after waking up, even though it should be updated after the workout just like it is on my watch.
I just bought a Garmin not realising there has been a change in interface. I will be returning the watch and going back to my Apple Watch. UI is really important to me.
I would be curious to hear what made Garmin decide to change the UI in the first place? Was there a large percentage of people complaining about it or was it just to 'update' the look? I was very happy with the old layout and still prefer it over the new one. A simple option to go back to the old look is all we want.
For things that you want to be in focus, you should not have to swipe to see. They should be there when you open the app. Perhaps the in focus data should be limited until you tap for more details.
This update is a train wreck, and I really really really want to use profanity and trash this... Garmin really needs to hire some real UI devs and start to listen their users... Reddit has some nice comment threads about this update, and the vibe is not positive, not even close
@@LifeCycle1978yeah, and it sucks… it’s not intuitive, it’s just confused about what it tries to be. It used to be just fine. Only needed maybe some GUI paint in line with Forerunner 965 GUI for example.
Thanks for telling us that you can hide the “In Focus” section. My first reaction to seeing it was, Yuck! With me the jury is still out, but , with enough customizability, it may be ok.
I agree with you on your thoughts. I really do appreciate the fact that we owners have a wealth of information at our hands for free. But, I like the less is more idea for the main page (i.e. overview) and expand out if I need more.
Fiddling with the user interface is all very well but the data "that is important to me" would be a graph of my weekly mileage for the past six months. Training for a marathon, this is the sort of data I want to see (preferably overlaid with avg HR and pace).
@DesFit thanks for the tip to edit the Homepage. I removed everything from the Homeoage except for last 7 days and details. And details only showing two Widgets. One is last activity and the second training status. What I still do not like is that the interesting stuff is deeply nested under the "More" tab.
Garmin owner since 2010. "In my mind when I open an app, I'd rather see a more birds-eye view of my day." Agree completely Des! That's why I'm on 4.77.1 where I can still see My Day (with all my metrics), Yesterday, Last 7 Days, collapsed, without scrolling. Just installed 5.0 again just for this comment. To display the same information I have to scroll. So literally no added value for me personally. That said, I used to record my runs in writing before the internet, so there's that. Thanks for all that you do. Back to 4.77.1...
Trying to be constructive, but the new app is a train wreck, I was part of the Beta and switched it off after 1 day, half the data in twice the space, thanks for your tips hopefully they will listen to your recommendations !
I’m not interested in swiping through tiles. The previous list layout was significantly easier to see the all of the data I was interested in. This almost makes me want to toss my Garmin altogether. I would be helpful if they gave an option for a fitness focus and lifestyle focus display. The fitness focus can be the old view and the lifestyle focus can be whatever this new version is supposed to be.
100% agree with Des. I would like the yesterday and last week views to go back to how they were and have complete choice of what goes in the new views. No doubt the limited items you can select currently on the new views were chosen from customer feedback, but it is definitely not my list. And, sorry to be regressive, but please can we have the option to opt out and go back to the old view.
The new Connect version is not as useful as the earlier version. I really liked the earlier version as I could review a great deal of information and search quickly review data. As a video suggestion... Could you consider making a video that covered other phone apps that could replace the Connect app? I now don't use the app as much and would love to find a replacement. Most companies are very slow and reluctant to change (or even admit to mistakes) and the consequence is the users are stuck with sub-optimal tools.
I agree with you that I would like to see a more overall summary at the top when first opening the app. Then below just all a little more customization for people to tweak the UI to better suite how they want to see it. More options, the better.
I used to have my Garmin app Home Screen set up with the cards collapsed which is similar to the 7 day view now. That layout was a really good quick way to view the data. The new 'at a glance' section is too complicated to 'glance' at, almost each tile has unique layout and it's definitely not glanceable you have to stop and think to understand what you're looking at. I've been using the Beta for a while now too and I'm still not used to it. I like you suggestion
I like the "data overload" of the old home screen on a mobile. Everything you want is there and easy to see at a glance. Trying to replicate it using the new "at a glance" requires more scrolling. The full width layout of the old style stacked better vertically than the new 2 per row widget layout. Also the widgets waste space and make the data smaller and harder to read. Having full screen width widgets and the ability to recreate the old layout and metrics would fix most criticisms and allow the new layout for those that want to keep it. I just want at a glance on 1 page displayed efficiently with the ability to click in to the metric for details. The old home did that well. Also I spent £130 on Index scales and would like to see my weight like on the old home. :o)
I dont really care for the homepage as I never use it. But if Garmin reads your comments I'll just say: Bring back Forerunner with MIP display and don't even think about going all out on AMOLED in adventure watches!
I was really hoping for an alternate calendar view where you could just scroll up and down to see historical and future workouts (exactly like TrainingPeaks). Not a fan of the calendar tab at all in current state.
Thanks for this video, Des. I think the Intensity Minutes glance should show the IM for the day rather than the accumulated IM for the week. The previous version did that but they have changed it for some reason that is beyond me. I hope Garmin will revert back to the former. These glance widgets should be data for the current day, used to be called My Day, which was very useful for daily wellness and fitness tracking. Daily, followed by Yesterday and then 7 day averages. Thanks.
I really wish we could view the DSW from the app as well, not only on the watch. I use the DSW for training but at my age, I need glasses to read. The watch is definitely more challenging!
Totally agree with your recommendations. Having a birds-eye view summary is nice for me personally, because it captures the big picture when I don't have time to sit and scroll through the details.
1000% agree with your recommendation mockup. I really prefer to have a ton of the metrics in small tabs that I can easily expand and contract by tapping like you said.
I wish Garmin would do a daily workout instead of just steps. That is one of my biggest problem. I wish I had the option to change from steps to either miles or something else as my daily goal besides steps. Should be available to do for every device.
Initial thoughts are mixed at best. I can no longer add my active goals to the Home screen and see a nice visual showing current progress against the goal.
I am totally fine with the layout, I have set it up in the way I focus on. I do have a question on who to ensure I get the best out of Garmin. I use 1030 Bike Computer & Fenix 6X Pro. I upload both, however it seems that the information is uploaded ok, however when both have updated, the information on the App doesn’t seem to then update my watch / bike computer as it only seems interested in where it came from. What I am after is what ever device I am using, once uploaded, want it fully sinked back to either device as just as Apple products all have the same information at the same time once connected / uploaded.
I think the home page looks great, but it seems harder to find anything I'm looking for outside of the Home screen modules. Took me like 2 minutes just to figure out where i could see how many active cals i burned over the last week for example
I like the appearance of the new app but agree with how you said it would be better layout if it was more like the yesterday and last 7 day with expandable readouts.
Thanks for this video. Would love POI integration in the App for all the watches, since now we need to use basecamp for that, and for certain watches, garmin explore.
Since Garmin is reading comments. I wish they would fix the sharing feature. The share stats feature is broken. Why do you have to share a picture now if you only want to share stats and no stats actually appear now if you do share a photo. You're only left with sharing a link which has way too much data including mapping and location. PLEASE FIX GARMIN...
I love the simplicity of the new app. Whenever i want more data i can just click my way in to it. At the same time I agree with the idea of having a dropdown menu for detailed info.
When the update first landed I absolutely hated it. However, I’ve since begrudgingly started to embrace it and, whilst there is definitely a lot more tapping and scrolling, I’m getting access to info and data that I just didn’t see before / was on my radar and thus my regimen is starting to see a little more 3 dimensional. Yes the old app was much easier to navigate and use but it feels much ‘flatter’ to this updated version.
I really don't like this new update on the app and website. The previous version gave you so much freedom, at least on the website, on what you want to see on the home page. With this new update pretty much every 'quick access" widget I used in the previous version - like a selectable list of works and be able to select whether to see just my run/swim/bike workouts and a quick glance of total millage on my gear, like seeing critical info like how many miles are on my pair of running shoes - has been removed and buried deep into menus. It's really frustrating and pretty much destroyed my training workflow immediately. The biggest one being the quick list of my own custom workouts and being able to filter by activity right from the home page. Now having to go Training & Planning, then Workouts ... I mean you can't even filter the workouts to just show a specific activity type. I honestly don't understand why it needed to change in the first place. I really wish they gave an opt-out option and continue to use the old layout. My Home Screen used to have all the important information that I needed to know, now it literally doesn't give me an option to show the information that is critical to my training.
I hope they will improve the exercise selection part for training plan. There is so much potential there: showing the visuals during selection; filter the exercises by muscle part. Currently searching the exercises by name is almost unusable.
I like it as it is now with version 5.0. So for me no need to change at all. I just wish Garmin would change some things on the activity pages. For example I would love to have hidden notes like on Strava.
I appreciate the update although I too feel it's missed the mark on customization. If the UI can be configured to include let most of the data fields to be collapsible that would be a good start. I appreciate the visuals the Garmin team are working towards and believe it will be a vast improvement after a couple incremental tweaks.
Mostly talking about the web page, and there I think they really need to work on customization tiles. Like the possibility to create own ones, not only predefined. Really missing the possibility to track goals and equipment on the home dashboard, as well as the possibility to add equipment to an activity without going into it, directly on the home screen. Also, let me use the complete width of the screen, 4 columns wasn't a problem on the old one...
Originally the new update confused me for the app, and I do feel like sometimes I forget to sync my watch because of not necessarily enjoying the update. However, I can get past it because I love that the watch itself is less distracting to me than an Apple Watch would be. My question, if anyone knows, is where in the world do I find the watch alarms setting to adjust the alarms I already have on my watch? I can’t find it on the settings page of the app at all and I really need to change them to my current lifestyle 🥲 I did enjoy this video! Thanks for the detailed overview and potential suggestions on the app interface that would make all of us garmin users happy 😊
Maybe a tile for the last activity for the in focus view would be cool. Would be awesome if they had a map "tile" where for example all of your activities from the start would be drawn. And that it would be available for the infocus panel.
All I ever wanted was to see my total mileage 1st Jan to 31st Dec each year. Unless this has just arrived its only available on the calendar at the foot of the page. Not checked api access recently but when I did your profile needed to be public to get this stat. Logged all my miles since 2010, and still only check the calendar.🙄
What I really want is Connect stats to be up to date. If I've just finished a workout, my training readiness is no longer high. The delay in some stats is super annoying.
I have an immune disorder, no training sessions for me... i need to pace and limit steps. The old app did exactly what I needed and I could get rid of what I didn't. I would like the option to use the od version
Great summation and your suggestions for improvement are worth considering. A big frustration for me is that Garmin while providing an overwhelming number of data points it doesn't provide any meaningful interpretation on what the key metrics taken in combination are signaling. I am cyclist and it shows my VO2 Max as to how I would perform in a running race and not a cycling race. What does it matter what my respiration rate? In summary, I want an app to take in consideration my HRV, weight age, HR, respiration, cadence, sleep, applied against the kilometers and vertical climb and gradient to indicate these stats to a Kilometer, climbed metre and per % of gradient.
My biggest issue with current version is less the cosmetics and more the sync/ data refresh speed. It’s very slow, some tiles don’t show data for minutes, sometimes you need to close the app and reopen in order to see data.
A quick tip - I had troubles with connection between my phone since Connect 5.0 and my Epix Pro (I even quit beta because of that but was left with little choice once it was rolled out for everyone). As the final resort I backed up the watch, reset it to the factory settings and then restored it from the backup. Here comes the slightly interesting part - it has not only fixed the problems with connectivity I knew I had, but also some problems I didnt know I had had. For example, when using the quick toggle for the flashlight, there is an overlay on the display now that allows me to switch from red light to white and pick intensity? Cool, I didnt have that one before! And the watch overall feels somehow smoother. So my advice is to bite the bullet and do the backup-reset-restore for your device as well. It wasnt all that painful at the end of the day.
"Verschlimmbessert" is the German word I'd use. It means someone tried to improve ("verbessert") but made it worse ("schlimm"). I really prefer the old design. When I was able to use the new one some months ago, I gave it some days (I always try to be open minded) but then switched back to the old one.
Your video encouraged me to actually take the effort to change the screen 😂 but I do agree that it isn’t the most desirable situation at the moment. Like the suggested mockup.
I have been trying to get used to this new version. Full width cards were so much simpler to use. Not sure why it was changed. This is much more complicated.
I like your mock-up although it might be hard to translate that to the desktop view and since the app, mobile and desktop views are now technically identical they probably share the same codebase which would make it harder to do. Perhaps Garmin could just add all available data fields to the large in focus cards and allow them to he stacked vertically without the silly horizontal swipe. And remove the limit for 8 smaller at a glance cards. If we can then sort the larger and smaller cards freely on the homepage it'd be good enough to get almost all los information back and without all the swiping and clicking. Just a manually sortable grid of 1 and 2 column cards and it's all good.
If it's not broken, don't fix it. The old version with the collapsed list view gave a really nice and fast overview of all the important metrics. Now in version 5 there is no overview and you have to scroll up and down and left and right to see what you could see in one page before. Please let us have version 4 back.
I would like the option to select between the new and previous UI. Just like in the beta version.
same
I really don't like the new design: the combination of horizontal and vertical scrolling makes the app harder to use than it was before. Having two cards side-by-side in the "at a glance" section instead of two horizontal cards in the same space is harder to read, and the excess whitespace, while it may be on-trend, isn't great for those of us who want to see stats - which is why we use Garmin! I really like Des's suggestion of a "Today" section similar to "Last Week", with expanding cards. But the "in focus" section - having to horizontally scroll... nope
I have to say that I really like your proposal (mock-up) where you can see everything at a glance and tap to reveal more detailed information.
👍
Isn’t that basically what Fitbit does?
Agree - he hits on all the fundamental usability issues with the new UI. And the at a glance/tap to reveal is just smart. For me, it just feels like the new UI requires me to tap and scroll several more times then I used to in order to get to the same old data.
@@n64central Isn't it basically what the previous version did. ;)
Fully agree!
Bad to worse. 😂 Hope Garmin listens. I’ve been using Garmin for many years. I don’t understand how they can make it worse. Reading good things about the Suunto app and Race watch. Sure like the price point so going to give Suunto a shot. 😊
I think Garmin should allow users the option to select the old style home page in the settings menu - so those that enjoy the new interface can use it and those that don't can continue using the old version they are used to
I agree. I noticed that I don't use Garmin Connect nearly as much as I used to.
Love Garmin but I’ve always thought they have the worst UI design out there. They really need to invest in talented designers. Agree with your comments about the the new update. Also sent them my feedback that the desktop layout makes poor use of space.
I think from UX and design perspective the new app is utter garbage. This is what happens to you if you have too big of a grip on the market and can't feel the pressure of competition strongly enough. Only market can fix this, only people simply choosing NOT TO use this and go for competition. I've had so many encounters with the levels of arrogance of Garmin's tech support that I don't really attempt to send them any feedback, it's not worth it. Their attitude is "we know best, we are Garmin you lowly creature".
If ANY OTHER sports watch manufacturer on the market came up with this design people would laugh them out of the door but for some reason when Garmin does it people cautiously offer them "suggestions"... 🤡
Agree 100%. Not just UI. Their software in general. They still can’t get rerouting right even on Edge 1040. Every other GPS I have owned does rerouting right. Just one example.
@@sdanjohn Yes, my Edge 540 is also laughably incompetent at even the most trivial rerouting tasks. It's pathethic that Garmin, of all companies, has issues with this.
The old UI looked nice in the app I think. The new one looks ugly. Its like some have gone to a bootcamp for a week and tried to design a webpage first day at work.
Sorry coming from Apple Health I think Apple does even a worse job. Yes it looks maybe better but the UX of the Apple Health app is so bad ... I had to buy an extra app to show me the Apple Health data better.
I never saw the old Garmin UI as I moved just this week but it's definitely not the worst imo
Garmin should fire the UI design team and rebuild it 😅
I am going to be a bit mean, but it feels like a diversity hire has been in charge for the UI. See this at many companies since last year now, atleast TH-cam reverted their new UI after a big backlash from users that it was so much worse.
What I'd like is the "Last 7 days" tile to be dynamic, so you can switch through last 7, 30, 360 days and also swipe through historic data. That's what I'd need to see my progress or decline over time. Everything else is superfluous to me.
Having used Connect 5.0 for 5 months now I completely agree with your proposal for layout. An over at the top with click to drill down is standard format and requires little user app defined knowledge, fundamental to a good UI. After 5 months I still open 5.0 and think - "right, what am I looking at and for!"
@garmin the main fault with the App is that it is impossible to find a past activity on the calendar. We can’t search by name neither by date. The only way to navigate on the calendar is to go month by month and it is a pain to search for an activity you did a year ago… it’s nonsense. Pleeeaasseeee fix this with useful filters and ad a search bar on the calendar, please! Ps: maybe you can take inspiration from Coros with the function to mirror the watch on the phone to have a bigger screen in some specific situations, for example, while exploring the map while hiking.
And yet they thought dumbing down the layout is more important.
searchable calendar would be great!
I miss having a better full summery on the main screen vs having to swipe the In Focus, etc. You have some great ideas on improvements, I'd vastly prefer them over the current. Let's hope Garmin is listening! Oh, and if they are... New Edge 1040plus/1050 coming?🙏
I want a summary in the top of my day. Just like last week but for right now.
So… the old version back!
Yes please@@mikegrimshaw6959
I think one of the bigger problems has been the conflating of phone/app version, and the desktop one. On the desktop one, which I prefer to use, I like to see those tiles you used to be able to bring in on stuff like the calendar week ahead, my PRs, the mileage on individual pairs of shoes, not to mention the previous activities. Now all that stuff is gone, so you end up spending more time moving through the menus....
Literally switched to coros just as this happened and don't regret it
I tested the BETA, at first I was skeptical, but once I customized the views to the information I wanted to see I liked it. The information I care and want to see is there at a glance, I don’t have to click on it to drill down.
The simplicity of how Strava present kms/hrs/fitness stats/goals on their 'Progress' tab wins hands down for me who is only using Edge units to record rides. The irony being I have less stress by not tracking stress levels and worrying about the quality of the health data I'm uploading. 😉I can see where this is heading for Garmin though. 24/7 health tracking is a very effective hook into an ecosystem. How soon until we see premium Connect features offered as a subscription tier? TIL they're already doing this for golf.
Strava does have a great dashboard page in regards to the Progress tab but I wish the "You" tab still went to the profile page! 😂 In regards to subscriptions for health features, they seem to have a firm stance on not going to a subscription model for health data but you are correct for the golf features.
@@DesFit I'm glad to hear that because I specifically jumped over to Garmin from Fitbit so I didn't have to pay exorbitant fees for the data I was already collecting.
I am still missing simple stats for the calendar week (Monday to Sunday) as many athletes and training plans use this.
I was asked by Garmin to Beta test V5. I told them then that all the blocks are much too big with too little data, as opposed to the previous. I disagree that there's more information than before. At least it feels that there is less. The new layout requires far too much scrolling and sliding to get to what you want to see. I much prefer the previous version.
I think your mockup is much better than what Garmin has given us. I turned off the In Focus section because I don't like part of the screen scrolling sideways and then other parts are scrolling up and down. I feel like this was a case of Garmin changing things just to say that they changed the app.
I was part of the Beta testing and quickly discovered that turning all the "In Focus" features etc off was what worked best for me as I really preferred the old layout and this is the closest I think I can get to it. I like your suggestions though and agree that a big customizable overview, that can be tapped on for detailed info on each parameter, would be a nice option.
I was part of the Beta, I really really tried to like the new system and waited and waited before giving my feedback because I didn't have positive feedback an I didn't want to be one of those people that just complained about change. I just don't like it. I preferred the older system and being able to choose what data I could see on the screen and tap into. I sell many Garmin products in my job and the ap now is harder to navigate, and not as easy to sell to customers as part of the package that Garmin provides when you buy a watch. Your mockup is good, and would have been a better direction to go I think.
If you were part of the beta you should have told them straight away that is worse. That is what I have done when Microsoft reached out and asked about a change in a software. Not sure they listen, but atleast I could tell them things gotten worse.
@@AndrewTSqplenty of beta testers provided their feedback about how bad it is. The writing was in the wall. Garmin was making the change regardless. Pathetic
I share your same thoughts. The watches are information dense; they should consider retaining such detail in the mobile app. That in a sense is a great "Glance" - every detail you want to see for the day in one view. No panning through tiles and no scrolling the page required. I also agree with you that the decision to now make the website dashboard a 'mirror' of the phone very odd indeed considering the real-estate of the screen. Further, people go to the website typically for even more information dense details.
And can they at some point allow offline sync with the devices? Every time their servers have a minor hiccup for a few hours, the app is useless. Even Polar and Suunto apps perform offline sync.
Well done, concur with your recommendations.
👍
I really agree with you on the different point you brought up. We now get more information, but the sections takes up way too much space. To get to the information I have to scroll way too much, and that’s quite annoying. Also, when looking at activities for the last 7 days, my indoor climbing sessions are now categorized as strength workouts, and that’s just not correct. I love more data/information, but the sections need to be slimmed down quite a bit. Also, I like to be able to have more of a choice on what to see on screen from all the data panels. But definitely keep yesterday, and the last 7 days info.
Des UI suggestions are great!
I don't mind the makeover (honestly it makes next to zero difference in my mind), but I'd really appreciate it if the phone app updated with data from the watch better. For example, after a workout the Training Readiness displayed on the phone remains the same as in the morning after waking up, even though it should be updated after the workout just like it is on my watch.
I just bought a Garmin not realising there has been a change in interface. I will be returning the watch and going back to my Apple Watch. UI is really important to me.
Like me. Have the Apple Watch Ultra and was considering to go back to my Epix 2. No way.
I would be curious to hear what made Garmin decide to change the UI in the first place? Was there a large percentage of people complaining about it or was it just to 'update' the look? I was very happy with the old layout and still prefer it over the new one. A simple option to go back to the old look is all we want.
Loved your points and fully agree with all of them. I would love to see more toggles for on/off data screens so I can customize my focus.
I really really wish I could have unlimited "at a glance" cards on the home screen. Why would they limit it, that extra tap is so annoying.
For things that you want to be in focus, you should not have to swipe to see. They should be there when you open the app. Perhaps the in focus data should be limited until you tap for more details.
I agree wholeheartedly with your mock up ….. hear that Garmin!!
This update is a train wreck, and I really really really want to use profanity and trash this... Garmin really needs to hire some real UI devs and start to listen their users... Reddit has some nice comment threads about this update, and the vibe is not positive, not even close
and for the productive feedback... No side scrolling! And I want to have an option to have ALL the data on the front page if I want to
Easy big guy. It’s an app, it gives you some stats and metrics. That’s it.
It sucks now.
@@LifeCycle1978yeah, and it sucks… it’s not intuitive, it’s just confused about what it tries to be. It used to be just fine. Only needed maybe some GUI paint in line with Forerunner 965 GUI for example.
Spot on! It's really not a simple overview at all.. And it seems there a multiple new 'clicks' just to find the same information as before
I love your mockup. That’s great design right there! Other than that, I think the new Garmin connect is okay…not great, but okay
First time stumbling onto your channel and aside from the excellent quality, the thing I love the most is the helmet lampshade!
Thanks so much!
Thanks for telling us that you can hide the “In Focus” section. My first reaction to seeing it was, Yuck! With me the jury is still out, but , with enough customizability, it may be ok.
I agree with you on your thoughts. I really do appreciate the fact that we owners have a wealth of information at our hands for free. But, I like the less is more idea for the main page (i.e. overview) and expand out if I need more.
Fiddling with the user interface is all very well but the data "that is important to me" would be a graph of my weekly mileage for the past six months. Training for a marathon, this is the sort of data I want to see (preferably overlaid with avg HR and pace).
@DesFit thanks for the tip to edit the Homepage. I removed everything from the Homeoage except for last 7 days and details. And details only showing two Widgets. One is last activity and the second training status.
What I still do not like is that the interesting stuff is deeply nested under the "More" tab.
Garmin owner since 2010. "In my mind when I open an app, I'd rather see a more birds-eye view of my day." Agree completely Des! That's why I'm on 4.77.1
where I can still see My Day (with all my metrics), Yesterday, Last 7 Days, collapsed, without scrolling. Just installed 5.0 again just for this comment. To display the same information I have to scroll. So literally no added value for me personally. That said, I used to record my runs in writing before the internet, so there's that. Thanks for all that you do. Back to 4.77.1...
Trying to be constructive, but the new app is a train wreck, I was part of the Beta and switched it off after 1 day, half the data in twice the space, thanks for your tips hopefully they will listen to your recommendations !
I’m not interested in swiping through tiles. The previous list layout was significantly easier to see the all of the data I was interested in. This almost makes me want to toss my Garmin altogether. I would be helpful if they gave an option for a fitness focus and lifestyle focus display. The fitness focus can be the old view and the lifestyle focus can be whatever this new version is supposed to be.
I like the side by side layout. It mashed customizing easier, in my opinion
Great video as always. It’s always smart to trust Des’ opinions on UI. 👌
Thanks, Matt!
100% agree with Des. I would like the yesterday and last week views to go back to how they were and have complete choice of what goes in the new views. No doubt the limited items you can select currently on the new views were chosen from customer feedback, but it is definitely not my list. And, sorry to be regressive, but please can we have the option to opt out and go back to the old view.
They broke the connect web version. Try to zoom in the body battery chart, the page goes blank. The app also no longer has zoom for charts.
The new Connect version is not as useful as the earlier version. I really liked the earlier version as I could review a great deal of information and search quickly review data. As a video suggestion... Could you consider making a video that covered other phone apps that could replace the Connect app? I now don't use the app as much and would love to find a replacement. Most companies are very slow and reluctant to change (or even admit to mistakes) and the consequence is the users are stuck with sub-optimal tools.
Just terrible. How can I go back to the previous version??
I agree with you that I would like to see a more overall summary at the top when first opening the app.
Then below just all a little more customization for people to tweak the UI to better suite how they want to see it. More options, the better.
Can we get customizable unit of measures or what?!? Ie weight in lbs, speed and distance in KMs. 🇨🇦
I like your mock up. Garmin, listen to Desfit!!
I used to have my Garmin app Home Screen set up with the cards collapsed which is similar to the 7 day view now. That layout was a really good quick way to view the data. The new 'at a glance' section is too complicated to 'glance' at, almost each tile has unique layout and it's definitely not glanceable you have to stop and think to understand what you're looking at. I've been using the Beta for a while now too and I'm still not used to it. I like you suggestion
The new update makes me wish I got a COROS. Their ecosystem looks real nice.
I like the "data overload" of the old home screen on a mobile. Everything you want is there and easy to see at a glance. Trying to replicate it using the new "at a glance" requires more scrolling. The full width layout of the old style stacked better vertically than the new 2 per row widget layout. Also the widgets waste space and make the data smaller and harder to read. Having full screen width widgets and the ability to recreate the old layout and metrics would fix most criticisms and allow the new layout for those that want to keep it.
I just want at a glance on 1 page displayed efficiently with the ability to click in to the metric for details. The old home did that well. Also I spent £130 on Index scales and would like to see my weight like on the old home. :o)
I dont really care for the homepage as I never use it. But if Garmin reads your comments I'll just say: Bring back Forerunner with MIP display and don't even think about going all out on AMOLED in adventure watches!
Very helpful. I didn't know about the last 7 days feature on 5.0. Thank you! Love your suggestions as well!
Happy to help and thanks!
Great take Des!
Thanks Eric! 👍
I was really hoping for an alternate calendar view where you could just scroll up and down to see historical and future workouts (exactly like TrainingPeaks). Not a fan of the calendar tab at all in current state.
Thanks for this video, Des. I think the Intensity Minutes glance should show the IM for the day rather than the accumulated IM for the week. The previous version did that but they have changed it for some reason that is beyond me. I hope Garmin will revert back to the former. These glance widgets should be data for the current day, used to be called My Day, which was very useful for daily wellness and fitness tracking. Daily, followed by Yesterday and then 7 day averages. Thanks.
I really wish we could view the DSW from the app as well, not only on the watch. I use the DSW for training but at my age, I need glasses to read. The watch is definitely more challenging!
Totally agree with your recommendations. Having a birds-eye view summary is nice for me personally, because it captures the big picture when I don't have time to sit and scroll through the details.
1000% agree with your recommendation mockup. I really prefer to have a ton of the metrics in small tabs that I can easily expand and contract by tapping like you said.
I find it more difficult now to see the data that matters to me. 4:15 totally agree that there needs to be a summary at the top!
Yeah, I agree each widget takes up too much space.
I wish Garmin would do a daily workout instead of just steps. That is one of my biggest problem. I wish I had the option to change from steps to either miles or something else as my daily goal besides steps. Should be available to do for every device.
Initial thoughts are mixed at best. I can no longer add my active goals to the Home screen and see a nice visual showing current progress against the goal.
I am totally fine with the layout, I have set it up in the way I focus on.
I do have a question on who to ensure I get the best out of Garmin. I use 1030 Bike Computer & Fenix 6X Pro. I upload both, however it seems that the information is uploaded ok, however when both have updated, the information on the App doesn’t seem to then update my watch / bike computer as it only seems interested in where it came from.
What I am after is what ever device I am using, once uploaded, want it fully sinked back to either device as just as Apple products all have the same information at the same time once connected / uploaded.
I think the home page looks great, but it seems harder to find anything I'm looking for outside of the Home screen modules. Took me like 2 minutes just to figure out where i could see how many active cals i burned over the last week for example
I like the appearance of the new app but agree with how you said it would be better layout if it was more like the yesterday and last 7 day with expandable readouts.
Thanks for this video. Would love POI integration in the App for all the watches, since now we need to use basecamp for that, and for certain watches, garmin explore.
Since Garmin is reading comments. I wish they would fix the sharing feature. The share stats feature is broken. Why do you have to share a picture now if you only want to share stats and no stats actually appear now if you do share a photo. You're only left with sharing a link which has way too much data including mapping and location. PLEASE FIX GARMIN...
I love the simplicity of the new app. Whenever i want more data i can just click my way in to it. At the same time I agree with the idea of having a dropdown menu for detailed info.
Respect to your VO2 Max 🫡
When the update first landed I absolutely hated it. However, I’ve since begrudgingly started to embrace it and, whilst there is definitely a lot more tapping and scrolling, I’m getting access to info and data that I just didn’t see before / was on my radar and thus my regimen is starting to see a little more 3 dimensional. Yes the old app was much easier to navigate and use but it feels much ‘flatter’ to this updated version.
I really don't like this new update on the app and website. The previous version gave you so much freedom, at least on the website, on what you want to see on the home page. With this new update pretty much every 'quick access" widget I used in the previous version - like a selectable list of works and be able to select whether to see just my run/swim/bike workouts and a quick glance of total millage on my gear, like seeing critical info like how many miles are on my pair of running shoes - has been removed and buried deep into menus. It's really frustrating and pretty much destroyed my training workflow immediately. The biggest one being the quick list of my own custom workouts and being able to filter by activity right from the home page. Now having to go Training & Planning, then Workouts ... I mean you can't even filter the workouts to just show a specific activity type. I honestly don't understand why it needed to change in the first place. I really wish they gave an opt-out option and continue to use the old layout. My Home Screen used to have all the important information that I needed to know, now it literally doesn't give me an option to show the information that is critical to my training.
I hope they will improve the exercise selection part for training plan. There is so much potential there: showing the visuals during selection; filter the exercises by muscle part. Currently searching the exercises by name is almost unusable.
Love your work... greetings from México
Thanks!
I like it as it is now with version 5.0. So for me no need to change at all.
I just wish Garmin would change some things on the activity pages. For example I would love to have hidden notes like on Strava.
The strength training data presentation is as bad as before
I appreciate the update although I too feel it's missed the mark on customization. If the UI can be configured to include let most of the data fields to be collapsible that would be a good start. I appreciate the visuals the Garmin team are working towards and believe it will be a vast improvement after a couple incremental tweaks.
Mostly talking about the web page, and there I think they really need to work on customization tiles. Like the possibility to create own ones, not only predefined. Really missing the possibility to track goals and equipment on the home dashboard, as well as the possibility to add equipment to an activity without going into it, directly on the home screen. Also, let me use the complete width of the screen, 4 columns wasn't a problem on the old one...
Garmin missed one thing. To hire Des a a UI designer. :)
Originally the new update confused me for the app, and I do feel like sometimes I forget to sync my watch because of not necessarily enjoying the update. However, I can get past it because I love that the watch itself is less distracting to me than an Apple Watch would be. My question, if anyone knows, is where in the world do I find the watch alarms setting to adjust the alarms I already have on my watch? I can’t find it on the settings page of the app at all and I really need to change them to my current lifestyle 🥲
I did enjoy this video! Thanks for the detailed overview and potential suggestions on the app interface that would make all of us garmin users happy 😊
Maybe a tile for the last activity for the in focus view would be cool. Would be awesome if they had a map "tile" where for example all of your activities from the start would be drawn. And that it would be available for the infocus panel.
All I ever wanted was to see my total mileage 1st Jan to 31st Dec each year. Unless this has just arrived its only available on the calendar at the foot of the page. Not checked api access recently but when I did your profile needed to be public to get this stat. Logged all my miles since 2010, and still only check the calendar.🙄
I can no longer see the 3 circles with the dist, time and cal after my run. That one was my favorite.
What I really want is Connect stats to be up to date. If I've just finished a workout, my training readiness is no longer high. The delay in some stats is super annoying.
I have an immune disorder, no training sessions for me... i need to pace and limit steps. The old app did exactly what I needed and I could get rid of what I didn't. I would like the option to use the od version
Garmin was given a ton of consteuctive feedback from beta testers. They ignored it all.
Great summation and your suggestions for improvement are worth considering.
A big frustration for me is that Garmin while providing an overwhelming number of data points it doesn't provide any meaningful interpretation on what the key metrics taken in combination are signaling.
I am cyclist and it shows my VO2 Max as to how I would perform in a running race and not a cycling race.
What does it matter what my respiration rate?
In summary, I want an app to take in consideration my HRV, weight age, HR, respiration, cadence, sleep, applied against the kilometers and vertical climb and gradient to indicate these stats to a Kilometer, climbed metre and per % of gradient.
My biggest issue with current version is less the cosmetics and more the sync/ data refresh speed.
It’s very slow, some tiles don’t show data for minutes, sometimes you need to close the app and reopen in order to see data.
A quick tip - I had troubles with connection between my phone since Connect 5.0 and my Epix Pro (I even quit beta because of that but was left with little choice once it was rolled out for everyone). As the final resort I backed up the watch, reset it to the factory settings and then restored it from the backup. Here comes the slightly interesting part - it has not only fixed the problems with connectivity I knew I had, but also some problems I didnt know I had had. For example, when using the quick toggle for the flashlight, there is an overlay on the display now that allows me to switch from red light to white and pick intensity? Cool, I didnt have that one before! And the watch overall feels somehow smoother. So my advice is to bite the bullet and do the backup-reset-restore for your device as well. It wasnt all that painful at the end of the day.
I have the Coros pace 3 and wanna try forerunner 265 but the garmin connect makes me not want to. Coros app is amazing
"Verschlimmbessert" is the German word I'd use. It means someone tried to improve ("verbessert") but made it worse ("schlimm"). I really prefer the old design. When I was able to use the new one some months ago, I gave it some days (I always try to be open minded) but then switched back to the old one.
Your video encouraged me to actually take the effort to change the screen 😂 but I do agree that it isn’t the most desirable situation at the moment. Like the suggested mockup.
I totally agree with your suggestions for the app.
I have been trying to get used to this new version. Full width cards were so much simpler to use. Not sure why it was changed. This is much more complicated.
I like your mock-up although it might be hard to translate that to the desktop view and since the app, mobile and desktop views are now technically identical they probably share the same codebase which would make it harder to do.
Perhaps Garmin could just add all available data fields to the large in focus cards and allow them to he stacked vertically without the silly horizontal swipe. And remove the limit for 8 smaller at a glance cards.
If we can then sort the larger and smaller cards freely on the homepage it'd be good enough to get almost all los information back and without all the swiping and clicking.
Just a manually sortable grid of 1 and 2 column cards and it's all good.
Very nice Video Desfit! Thank you
👍