From sketch to wrist: the evolution of Android Wear

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The Android Wear that's shipping on the Motorola Moto 360, LG G Watch, and Samsung Gear Live is a far cry from where Google started when designers sat down to start sketching it out. "It was a long process of really trying to understand what people wanted from these kinds of devices," says David Singleton, Wear's director of engineering.

On the heels of the 360's launch — the first round Android Wear device — Google gave us an exclusive peek at the concepts, mockups, and use cases that went into the development of the platform's user interface. Needless to say, it could've turned out very differently.

Here are some of the most interesting visuals from the development process.

Grid View An early mockup shows how voice search could've looked.

A variety of concepts for ways to represent events in time.

Google experimented with horizontal movement between cards (like Google Glass) before deciding on a vertical orientation.

One possible Android Wear user interface, "Accordion," was rejected as getting complicated too quickly.

A "Compass" concept was tossed out for requiring too much movement to get between cards and actions.

The "Zoom" UI concept would've worked a bit like popular presentation app Prezi, but it just doesn't work on a tiny screen.

More mockups for Android Wear's voice search functionality.

Early mockups of Wear's home screen show that Google's designers were considering grids.

Inspiration for different screens and faces for round Android Wear devices.

Google spent significant time experimenting with colors and legibility.

Google's team looked at different color schemes for different display types, including grayscale and Mirasol

Concepts for showing multiple pieces of information in a shared small space.

How do you indicate that the watch is listening to you? Designers played with a bunch of concepts before settling on the red microphone.

Mockups of possible Android Wear themes.

Google looked at high-design watches for inspiration.



