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Home Screen Widget 'Blocks' Imagined in New iOS Concept
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The more im hearing about iOS 8 I feel it is going to be a complete fail. From right now I would say they just call it iOS 7.5
Steve Jobs claimed he was a huge fan of widgets for the Mac, and put up this slide at his keynotes:
Also the original iPhone patent diagrams included widgets:
No idea - doesn't matter. I think something should/could be done with the old search page.....might as well make it a page for widgets. Would allow the feature without cluttering the home screen.
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Interesting. Again, something like OS X where the widgets are all on one page could work and not be messy looking.
Well there are indications some of those things are happening:
App running: "running" is loose term on iOS. An app is obviously running when you have in on screen so no need for an indicator, but is it "running" when it is not consuming any CPU time but is still loaded in to RAM (suspend) as most apps are when not on screen? Are apps "running" when they're still shown in the recent apps list but have been swapped out to storage and aren't even using an RAM? When in that chain of events does the "running" indicator go away? (Hint, the answer to both questions is "no").
GPS signal: The indicator is on your status bar. One or more apps are using location services when that arrow is displayed; Settings>Privacy>Location Services to see what arrows are blue and tell what is using, or has used in the past 24 hours, location data.
Downloading a file: Again a single status bar icon of rotating arrows indicates network download activity by one or more apps.
To forgo the simple status bar indicators and put the indicators on each active app icon leads to these questions which need serious pondering and design:
1. Do we invent new indicators like badges, change the icon shape, color or alter current badges to apply these status indicators?
2. Do we want to scroll through all our home pages to identify what apps are using these services or are we better off with a single list in settings?
3. Do status indicators show though folders or do you need to open each folder to check for status icons?
4. Is there some gesture or display that should consolidate all of this information that 95% of users don't care about to keep things simple?
His JM moniker is really sweet. The concept is just ok.
I like how pinching makes it happen, which can't really be done unintentionally, and I agree with the left-centered justification, but simply pushing displaced apps to the next screen seems like a sloppy problem to have.
I like how pinching makes it happen, which can't really be done unintentionally, and I agree with the left-centered justification, but simply pushing displaced apps to the next screen seems like a sloppy problem to have.
Curious, do you have a custom wallpaper or are you using the stock one that came on the phone when you first started it up?
People Disable Control Center? I mean that as a real question I'm not trying to be snarky or anything. But to your question, perhaps if you have Control Center Disabled, then the App Icon reappears.
Or if we had a way to hide/show individual icons then any hidden apps (including settings in this case) could appear when someone does the "pull down" that brings up the search box as a default result set before the user has actually started entering a search.
Anyhow Just a few quick ideas off of the top of my head. But regardless, not having Settings launchable from Control-Center has always felt like a big omission to me.
I would personally like to see widgets/active icons on my home screen. I recently switched from iPhone 5 to the new HTC One M8 just so I can customize my phone and have information available to me right on the screen.
I used some of the early Android phones then went to iPhone 4 --> iPhone 5 and now to the HTC. I like the idea of not just looking at app icons.
I'm hoping Apple will one day change iOS to allow widgets/customization of the home screen.
I'm not trying to start a war between Android and iOS and saying one is better than the other. The widgets and customization were just a couple of reasons for switching for now.
Also still a Mac and (2) Apple TV user.
I used some of the early Android phones then went to iPhone 4 --> iPhone 5 and now to the HTC. I like the idea of not just looking at app icons.
I'm hoping Apple will one day change iOS to allow widgets/customization of the home screen.
I'm not trying to start a war between Android and iOS and saying one is better than the other. The widgets and customization were just a couple of reasons for switching for now.
Also still a Mac and (2) Apple TV user.
Well, with this concept, the user is able to decide how to lay out icons and widgets any way he/she wants to.
A single widget page may not be enough for many users, and having two separate sections (one for icons and another one for widgets) would take away simplicity.
The idea is nice; the execution perhaps needs a little work, but it's just a concept so that's expected.
iOS already has a system in place to allow apps to refresh their content and snapshot images in the background. That system could be extended to also allow apps to update their icons or widgets.
The only reason I could think of for Apple not allowing live icons would be if an App duplicated a system icon or the icon of another App, causing user confusion. I'm not sure anything could be done to guard against that possibility.
iOS already has a system in place to allow apps to refresh their content and snapshot images in the background. That system could be extended to also allow apps to update their icons or widgets.
The only reason I could think of for Apple not allowing live icons would be if an App duplicated a system icon or the icon of another App, causing user confusion. I'm not sure anything could be done to guard against that possibility.
For all you people wanting Apple to add things for various reasons and wonder why Apple doesn't do it... read this:
http://insideintercom.io/product-strategy-means-saying-no/
http://insideintercom.io/product-strategy-means-saying-no/
I'm not sure this is the answer, but how does tapping on the icon get info without opening the app?
Isn't the purpose of a widget to provide info at a glance, without opening an app?
I suppose it may boil down to a philosophical question of the usefulness of widgets. If they serve a purpose, I don't see why the hate for this solution.
I’m not a fan of widgets, from when an Android device was my primary phone to now with a few more modern devices around for dev/testing.
I always felt like they struck an awkward midpoint between simple notification of an event and effective, functional UI (particularly as an app extension). I even used some slick 3rd party shells/widget extenders, and I still just found myself going from notification to app, bypassing any need for a tiny, partially functional app interface (mostly just due to screen real-estate).
Some interesting ideas in this concept, just needs significant fleshing out or it feels like a “gee whiz” feature vs. functionally beneficial.
Again, nice video production, holy smokes, we need these guys to do our product demos!
I always felt like they struck an awkward midpoint between simple notification of an event and effective, functional UI (particularly as an app extension). I even used some slick 3rd party shells/widget extenders, and I still just found myself going from notification to app, bypassing any need for a tiny, partially functional app interface (mostly just due to screen real-estate).
Some interesting ideas in this concept, just needs significant fleshing out or it feels like a “gee whiz” feature vs. functionally beneficial.
Again, nice video production, holy smokes, we need these guys to do our product demos!
Depending upon what one calls a "widget" I saw them in the early 90s on upper end VT terminal servers and Solaris workstations. They were mostly cutesy things that we all pretty much ignored when doing real stuff.