iPhone main screen (1 of 6)

chrisdevers.vox.com: threegeesus iPhone followup: time to rework the home screen

(Picked up by TUAW )

To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and
install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

Comments

Kadath says:

I had 50+ apps over 5 pages on day 1. when I removed 75% of them it left me a nice clear path on the bottom of each page =)
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

tm-de says:

Is there really a point to this?
Of the insane amount of apps installed by you I do not conclude that the iPhone Home Screen has to be reworked.

You will never need that many programs at once.
And the whole App Store is designed around the idea to be accessible from anywhere, any time ... and you can savely delete unneeded programs and reinstall them, without having to pay for them again.

So it is not only a store, but also an archive for your unneeded stuff.
So simply delete stuff you do not need at least once a week ... problem solved?
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

jodiaz76 says:

I basically think that the solution is pretty simple.

SCROLL BOTH WAYS!!!

Instead of scrolling from right to left. One should be able to do it the other way around. Therefore if you want to access an app on the sixth screen, you only slide once. That would make the lives of people who have 100 apps easier.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

rdas7 says:

I don't see how this is any different to a screenshot of 1000 generic folder icons on a MacOSX desktop, along with the conclusion "Finder Desktop Needs To Be Reworked!"

Granted, neither of these examples scale particularly well at the extreme, however whatever solution is introduced will also add complexity.

I don't see how improving the usability for someone with 100 apps won't hurt the usability for those who have 16-48. Given where you are on the bell curve of that distribution, it looks like you might just have to wait for OS 3.0 before you're happy.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Chris Devers says:

@rdas7: Except that, in the Finder, you have options for cleaning it up -- subfolders, for starters. There's nowhere else to go with the iPhone UI.

@tm-de: Deleting the unneeded icons is a useful approach that I hadn't thought of. The problem there is that if iTunes is set to automatically sync apps to the phone, then they all come back the next time you sync to the computer, putting you back where you started. There needs to be an interface within ITunes on the computer to offer to remove apps that disppeared from the phone, or the problem ends up happening all over again.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

xenolon says:

I began to think of this UX problem when Apple initially introduced the multiple home screen "pages" and the "jiggle".

And in my opinion, it's a stop-gap. They needed a way for people to add more web shortcuts and app icons to the home screen, and they needed to do it without re-inventing the interface that many people were just getting used to.

In the future, I think we're going to see a home screen that is more menu based, with a menu for all your installed applications and other controls. This, tied with a dock-like function like what we currently have for your most used icons. I mean, you don't have every application and utility in your OS X dock (or windows quick-launch), do you?

I find the "Home Screen" pop-up dialogue that greets you upon booting the 2.0 firmware for the first time to be evidence of this. An interface as simple as the iPhone's touch interface shouldn't require reading instructions before a person can use it. These are consumer electronics, not specialized equipment for the technically inclined.

@jodiaz - your suggestion is to solve the problem by multiplying the factors that cause it.

@tm-de - don't presume to tell another user how they use their system is right or wrong. What works for someone else doesn't neccesarily work for you. The 2.0 firmware is out less than two weeks, and people are already running into this. What about a year from now? This is a design problem, not a behavioral problem on the part of users.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

AliSabki says:

what about a zooming capabilities? user can increase or decrease the icon depends on how much the apps.
one more thing, make an group app folder/shortcut. like a drop down or something. or just make a list of the apps?
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

何志诚 says:

xenolon, you're presuming to dell te-de not to presume to tell another user how to use their system, LOL. Nothing wrong with that - someone opened up a discussion and tm-de was giving a suggestion as a possible solution... and I agree...

I believe that after Chris has played with all these free apps, he'll no doubt find many he doesn't care for, along with many buggy ones... and by the time he removes all those, he'll be down to about 3 screens.

Right now it's just a novelty and I've found that using just a few apps for just a few minutes drains my battery like an open pipe... and I'm not on 3G, yet.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

xenolon says:

@何志诚 - I'd suggest you familiarize yourself with the definition of "presume". I'm asserting that tm should not be telling someone else how they ought to be using their own device. There's no one "right" way that works for everyone. And the tools we use should adapt to a variety of different methods.

The point is that the current interface is not extensible. Beyond a certain scale it breaks.

Let's set aside the space limitations and look at simply reorganizing icons. It's chaotic. In the example above, imagine you wanted to move the "remote" icon to where the "stocks" icon is, and put the "stocks" Icon where the "clock" icon is. The process becomes a messy shuffle not unlike that of a tile-game.

Not to mention the frustrating fact that I can't remove the Apple-supplied apps/icons. What if dont' care about stocks, and just want it gone? No way to remove it under the current shipping firmware.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

[?]

	Chris Devers' photostream
		0

	iPhone screengrabs (Set)
		71 items
	Part of: Screenshots

This photo also belongs to:

	Date: 2008 (Set)
		0
	Part of: Dates

	Place: Metro Boston (Set)
		0
	Part of: Places

	Place: New England (Set)
		0
	Part of: Places

	Place: North America (Set)
		0
	Part of: Places

	Place: Somerville (Set)
		0
	Part of: Places

	Place: USA (Set)
		0
	Part of: Places

	Screenshots (Set)
		0
	Part of: Grabbag and Screenshots

	Top 100 Interesting (Set)
		0
	Part of: Topsies

	Apple (Pool)
		0

	Massachusetts (Pool)
		0

1 person calls this photo a favorite

Additional Information

Some rights reserved Anyone can see this photo

Uploaded using Flickr Uploadr 3.0 (Mac)
Taken on July 17, 2008
Viewed 6,207 times

Add to your map

Yay location removed

...

(Some formats are OK.)

Or, remove it from the map.

Go to the map

You	Sign in \| Create Your Free Account
Explore	Places \| Last 7 Days \| This Month \| Popular Tags \| The Commons \| Creative Commons \| Search
Help	Community Guidelines \| The Help Forum \| FAQ \| Sitemap \| Get Help

iPhone main screen (1 of 6)

Comments

Kadath says:

tm-de says:

jodiaz76 says:

rdas7 says:

Chris Devers says:

xenolon says:

AliSabki says:

何志诚 says:

xenolon says:

Would you like to comment?

Tags

Additional Information