How to Make a Better iPhone Home Screen (Springboard) Concepts
Ocean Observations brings us a couple concepts on how they’d improve the iPhone Home Screen (Springboard). The first, above, embeds a tiny CoverFlow for apps at the bottom of the screen. While interesting, since Springboard currently supports only portrait mode and icon view, as TiPb’s asked for before, why not let it rotate to landscape for full-screen coverflow?
Next video concept, and another idea from Tog after the break!
Expose is awesome on the Mac, especially in Snow Leopard, but do we want it on our iPhone? The above proof-of-concept video offers a take on how it could look and work. Unfortunately, at that small size, are the tiny Home Screens discoverable? Would it work better if, instead of the Home Screens, it was a set of user-enabled background apps that were shown via Expose?
For both, holding down the Home button to launch would, of course, require giving up the current Voice Control activation, unless more complex controls like tap, tap, hold were introduced and weren’t too user hostile.
Meanwhile, Human Interface Guideline legend Tog offers his own opinion on what the iPhone home page system (called Springboard) needs to do to handle 180+ apps. His suggestions, pictured above, include labeled pages, vertical as well as horizontal scrolling, user-controlled icon positioning (i.e. the ability to leave empty slots), the ability to rename apps, containers (folders), aliases (so you can have the same app in multiple containers), and tags (which he says Apple is already working on).
Take a look at the video and check out Tog’s post, and let us know what you think.
[Via MobileCrunch and Daring Fireball, thanks Matthew for the tip!]
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That sounds like the Blackberry storm?
I’m all set. iPhone is good the way it is.
I like the idea of folders, and empty slots. But while the Expose idea would benefit young app junkies, it would only get in the way of users who have fifty apps or less.
And since non-jailbroken iPhones already have voice control with the Home Button, and most jailbroken iPhones have Backgrounder with the Home button, another Home button control just seems like too much.
The first one looks really good to me, but the second one seems to take away the simpleness of the springboard.
I really like the first one its cool. I wish I could have that one. Oh well
My vote is for the first 1 looks good
How about the ability to create folders, so apps can be put into them. Seems like a very simple and useful idea to me.
These are both ugly! Not only that, they are thinking way inside the box. Take the HD2 and HTC’s Sense UI for example. That UI is beautiful and brilliantly organized. The iPhone UI was the same…OVER TWO YEARS AGO. It’s obvious that the iPhone OS is in need of a makeover, both cosmetically to enhance the design and organizationally to compensate for the increasing amount of apps that people have on their phones. I will be disappointed if iPhone OS doesn’t get a rewrite like this for 4.0. I never thought I’d say this because I thought that the iPhone was the cleanest interface for a long time but the OS is beginning to look dated.
What about having stacks like in OSX? I think it would make the home screen much cleaner by having the ability to organize similar apps in these stacks. A landscape version of cover flow for switching between apps would be pretty nice too.
You can already do this stuff on an iPhone. It’s called Jailbreaking.
Love the idea of the embeding a tiny CoverFlow for apps at the bottom of the screen!!! Bring it on!
Looks like copy of Pre interface (with flicking up to close and so on).
folders seem to be the most logical way to go. I have about 60 apps on my phone, and haveing to swipe anything to get from one to another is just taking too long. if you are on the home screen and need something from screen 8, it is too much back and forth. a game folder where all games would be stored, and then a vertical swipe screen where you would swipe down instead of sidways would be far more effective. I know this sounds very blackberry, and it is, because it works. I had numerous folders on my bold to sort and save things. the coverflow idea is still more swiping. we need a way to condense the screens, not expand them even more.
That first one seems interesting. I’m surprised no-one has come up with the idea of cards to handle multi tasking before.
@paulpenny: iPhone’s mobile Safari had “pages”, which is pretty much Palm Pre’s cards, since 2007
@Al: “dated?” Computer UI’s haven’t changed much since GUI’s came out in the 1980s. It’s not a function of data or “looking old” but what works best. Apple clearly needs a better way to handle apps, and that should cause a change. Change for fashion’s sake leads to the opposite of usability.
The first one seems like the way to go, maybe it could be able to handle multi tasking… I feel like the way the springboard is now is fine because it’s what people are used to and it’s simple to use. Apple made finding apps faster in 3.0 when they added Spotlight so o stead of flipping through page after page you could just hit the home button twice and search for the app if you have too many pages. Can’t wait till 4.0 and hopefully a new iPhone next June/July!
cover flow multitasking sounds pretty good to me.
The first one is excellent, but from the looks of it, it seems a lot like a Palm device that released not too long ago…the name escapes me…
I think it would be excellent to have, and maybe even, instead of a call out for the cover flow being the home button, they could use a multi-touch gesture? Perhaps a 2-finger slide across the bottom of the page. You’d have your basic home screen that we all know (and some love), then with a quick gesture it pulls up cover flow. Or even like Rene suggested, give me a coverflow when i flip my phone to the side….
BTW, Jailbreak developers should get on this >.<
How long will the CoverFlow horse be beaten? If they WOULD change it…I would want something fresh and new. Not the same thing that’s been put into everything from iTunes to iPod to Safari to Finder to iPhone. I mean damn…
Why not just user NAMED categories? Why this obsession with icons for everything?
How many iPhone users are illiterate and can’t Category labels?
hahaha thats such a joke! the cover flow is the biggest rip off from the PRE. Jobs when never do that seeing his rivalry with the PRE
Apple needs to get rid of the spring board concept all together in OS 4.0. Why do I need to see icons for all my apps, it is ridiculous. Apple should look to what is being done with Android and copy some of the best ideas. I think one of the problems is the inflexibility of the home screen(s). I get way too little information from my home screen. I should be able to customize every screen with different widgets and chock it full of information that I can readily see. I have to jump around too much with my iPhone 3GS to get to the info. I am starting to hate all the apps and the springboard feels so outdated. I hope they pull out a major OS UI overhaul in 4.0 that makes it competitive with what google is offering with Android.
I think the expose option would be great if it were a setting that could be changed. On the 3g there are options for double tapping the home button default being phone favorites. perhaps a setting to change from favorites to expose or maybe from voice control to expose?
Looks cluttered and junk. Take a look at how the Pre and Sense UI multitask using widgets and cards. The Iphone needs to borrow a page from those UI. Coverflow is lame btw.
John Oates has the right idea.
Get rid of all the icons. Get widgets. Keep all the apps in app drawer of sorts.
Look at Android and WebOS. They are lightyears ahead.
Hello, My name is Michael and I’m an app junkie.
What?
This isnt the AJA meeting? Great how am I going to explain this to my sponsor.
Also The one button thing is stupid. I have a trackball to move all around webpages and my screens, a home button to go to the home screen, a search button that I can use anywhere to do a quick google, look up contacts etc et, and a back button.
Face it people the Iphone is outdated. It’s like the new RAZR. All hype and no substance.
1st one seems like a storm/pre wanna be type of thing… 2nd offers slight meager way to improve the ability of getting to further pages. 3rd is kinda convoluted… I would love the idea of empty spaces and I have wanted folders from day one…. both empty spaces and folders if they gave the option for them could be used with the current display in a way that anyone not wanting change from the original doesn’t have to which would be perfect.
ohs nos! My iPhone 3gs is outdated? What phone do you have cause it must be better. I better get one quick.
@Michael:
Thanks for sharing. Keep coming back.
palm pre rip off apple can/should do better. Not copy.
I really don’t particularly care if the solution is “copied” or not – I’d really like a better solution for organizing my apps than having to swipe (and swipe, and swipe) between multiple pages to get at the one I want. Folders are the obvious answer, so why don’t we just use them? Oh, right, not invented here.
This would also allow us to get something more useful than a pile of app icons on the home screen – like the day’s appointments, weather, most recent e-mails… but I guess we’re unlikely to get that either.
The jailbroken community already has folders and cover flow for apps. Thank you very much !
Than again to Geohot for blackra1n
Any of those ideas seem sweet. I was thinking a year or so back that the iPhone/iPod touch should have an AppSwitcher like in Mac OS X so you can change between your most used apps, but I like the coverflow idea a lot better. I really hope Apple uses this idea.
Hmmm Meh. Too much like the Pre. I wouldn’t want that thing at the bottom all the time. I would much rather turn the phone landscape on any of the springboard screen to get that window- like in iPod. Nice idea though. it’s ALMOST elegant.
screw organization. I want MULTITASKING!!!!!!!!!!!!
horizontal + vertical scrolling = YUCK.
really, Tog?
yuck.
I don’t see any merit to any but the first design.
These all seem really cool and I hope they do integrate them into the future firmware releases. Though the second one you can already get. All you need is a jailbroken iPhone or iTouch and while in Cydia, you can download an app called ‘Overboad’. That does the exact same thing as #2.
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