What is the purpose of having a clock on the desktop?

Question

It is common for a clock to be placed somewhere on the desktop - in Windows, it is on the taskbar.

But why do designers do this? It makes sense on a phone, for example, but when on a computer, I believe that most people have a clock within their vision or reach already. Many people wear watches. So why do we still have clocks on the modern desktop?

Edit: People, I would like to clarify that I am not dumb. I know clocks tell the time. I was looking for the impact that the small digital clock can have on a user, and why its significant to the workflow of a user.

Answer 1

Persona

Meet Carlos.

He is an academic course-coordinator in a university. He is a very busy man who spends most of the day in front of his computer.

User Observation

As Carlos goes on about his daily tasks, every half an hour or so he checks the time. Reasons vary:

• How long has he got before the 11:00 meeting?
• How long before lunch time?
• How long has he been replying to emails?
• How long before I go home?

In the specific day you observed Carlos, he checked the time 21 times. He spent 6 hours and 42 minutes in front of his computer screen.

As you observe Carlos, you see that in order to check the time he uses his iPhone instead of his watch. When asked why he replies:

"Because my iPhone clock is automatically synced to a time server and thus it is more accurate than my watch."

You further observe that behind Carlos there's a wall clock stuck on 2:40. You ask Carlos why the clock isn't working.

"It ran out of batteries 2 weeks ago and no one is asked to replace them."

A Revolutionary Design

And then you have a moment of enlightenment:

How about we save Carlos the need to reach his pocket, fetch the phone, look at the time and put the phone back in his pocket. How about:

• We provide Carlos with a small clock in the top bar of his screen (which he looks at most of the day anyway), so he only needs to move his eyes to see the time?
• Not only this, but the desktop clock will also be synced to a time server (the machine is connected to the internet anyway), providing Carlos with the most accurate time.
• In addition, how about clicking on the clock will reveal date information (which Carlos checks less regularly)?

You propose it to Carlos and he thinks it is a genius idea. He goes about how it can save the need to buy, maintain (batteries), and calibrate wall clocks on all rooms which have computers in them.

This is User Centred Design.

Conclusion

People often check the time (user need), and if in front of a computer (context), a small clock on the screen (design solution) is the quickest and most accurate way for them to do so.

Run an observation on many different personas and you'll find the same applies.

Answer 2

There is a clock on the desktop so that people can tell the time!

This is the same reason there is a clock on my mobile phone, wireless phone, oven, microwave oven, car, weather station and iPod. They have clocks because a clock is useful and easy to implement.

Answer 3

The desktop clock, or for that matter even the calendar, are primarily meant as a reflection of the date/time that the system is currently following.

The user of the system obviously knows the date/time (from his own watch or phone or otherwise), but he also expects to be reassured that the system he's working on is following the same date/time. For instance, if he is to schedule a task, say at 10PM on a particular date, how can he be sure that the system will execute that task at exactly 10PM of that date? The only way then would be to have the system's time synchronized to his own sense of time, and have it visible and available at all time for confirmation and surety.

Moreover, it is becoming increasing common to have offices and workspaces spread globally across various time zones. To have one watch for each timezone is completely infeasible, and it is normal for users to often have multiple clocks on their desktops instead -- these are extremely handy when having to schedule meetings or appointments for calls between two parties over different time zones.

Answer 4

I'm currently playing arround with extra desktops on windows, and I have to say that I miss the clock there.

I suggest that you test it yourself: Disable the clock in the taskbar. Each time you'll look to it, you will miss it.

A good UX design involves providing the nessecary information to the user without great effort.
The clock can be such a nessecary information, so better provide it.
Most other information is situational or not needed (like the network connectivity when not using wifi on a mobile device), so only show this if it does not match the usual state.

Answer 5

Although some great responses have already been provided, let me give one of the reasons I like having the clock visible from the desktop: I can see whether my computer is being ungodly slow or if its actually frozen. Its kind of a unique reason and less valid than it was 10 years ago, but when doing memory intensive work sometimes the computer can become momentarily unresponsive. However, if the clock still displays the correct time then I know the computer is simply still processing the last commands and it will become "unfrozen" when those commands are complete.

Answer 6

Some addition to above great answers.

The clock in Windows is put in right down corner, so it's easy to find it. When somebody says me by phone that some events will occur eg. on September 26th, I quickly move my pointer to left bottom part of the screen, double click to open the calendar, change current month to September and see that September 26th occurs on... wait a second... click-click... click... click... ...occurs on Thursday.

The functionality of checking weekdays is for me very important too.

Answer 7

To know the computer clock is in time.

You may not use it for yourself, but a lot of applications depend on it and they start acting unexpectedly if the time is wrong. The secondary usage of the clock is to provide easy access to change the date/time if it's wrong. You don't need to look where to change it, a simple click on the clock will open you controls to do that.

In addition to that, I use it to check the time. Since it's always on screen, it's much more convenient for me to look at it than reach for my phone. And I do not wear a watch. It's in fact very rare these days that anyone do. At least here in Finland.

Answer 8

My objections to your assumptions are as follows:

• The only other time display I have available at a glance from my desk at work is on the IP phone next to it.
• I look at my desktop pretty much all day. I don't stare at my phone (desk or mobile).
• The time display on my computer is synchronized with all other computers on my company's WAN through an NTP server, and so is within a second of everyone else's desktop clock throughout the office. The desk phone clock gets the same updates, but not any of the wall clocks (and as I said there's not one in view from my desk).
• The computer time display shows the definitive time for the office, around which meetings and appointments are scheduled. I receive reminders on my phone as well as my desktop, but they're within a second or two of each other.
• I don't wear a watch, because there are many other convenient time displays in my daily environment, including the phone in my pocket and the computer at which I sit. Heck, even my TV's DVR at home has a well-synchronized clock (for good reason).
• With almost every computer time display using a synchronization scheme that will place them within a few seconds of any other clock in the same time zone, and all based on either an atomic clock or the adjusted UT0 standard which are again very close together, there's no sense in limiting the number of places from which you could get the time, and similarly very little sense in trusting a $5 wall clock and its similarly-inexpensive quartz oscillator.