Apple Patent Confirms 1.1.3 Jiggly Icon Moving Scheme
Big ups to hrmpf.com for remembering a certain Apple patent: “Portable Electronic Device with Interface Reconfiguration Mode.” Basically it shows a portable device clearly letting you know you’re in “reconfiguration” mode by way of jiggly icons. While I personally don’t much like the jigglies, I will admit that, as rener and archie say, it does make it unmistakable that you’re in the “move stuff around” mode.
| Tweet |
|
|
Leave a Reply
Note: Comments must be civil, respectful, and on-topic. If a comment does not add to the conversation, if it contains spam advertising, or inappropriate language or content, it will be removed. Comments containing links may be held for moderation. Relax, enjoy, and share in the discussion.
Cheers!
And I think Apple realizes that sometimes they’re dealing with users who take the iPhone back because the “ringer stops working” after they (inadvertently or not) flip the Treo-esque silent mode switch.
Hitting people over the head with state, even swinging/wiggling state, may be a necessary bloat at times.
What about a color change? Or a few bright, flashy arrows underneath the icon you want to move?
I dunno, it still seems inelegant to me. If only because it gives me the jibblies
Sure, the metaphore is always debatable (and good UI artists probably fuss with the arguments a lot). The patent mentions a detaching and floating above the surface, which is pretty real-world. Wiggling abstacts that some.
The icons they use in favorites and other apps to change sequencing isn’t that intutive (at least to me).
Hey, they could always steal a page from Mii management and have all the icons line up at whistle-blow.
Color/saturation/transparancy or minicon (like the plus or numbers or arrows) are all good ways, though arguably not as fun or conversational