Love/Hate Relationship with Folders

[Soulcrux]

So i have a two-pronged relationship with Folders.

1. Apps that I would only use ever once in a while, but still needed to have on my phone for the "in case" scenario (for example, Urban Spoon, Remote, etc) would often clutter up my screens, so folders allow me to stuff groups of these apps into one icon. But..

2. I feel that having the ability to just hide away an app encourages me to download random apps that I won't really use. Also I'm scared that by hiding away the app ill be even less likely to use it than if it was out on the screen. I feel like some sort of crazy person X0

Anyone else feel this way?

 

[F123D]

I go through my apps on itunes once a month probably and just delete anything I haven't used in a while. Certain apps like games I've paid for, I just uncheck it so it won't sync with my phone. So far, the folders have been a nice addition.

 

[kuaiyouming]

.

 

[macduke]

I wish we could choose images for our folder icons. Right now my eyes glaze over when I have a page with several folders on it and I sometimes can't remember where I stuffed a certain app or what category I'm looking for. My mind works better by visual clues rather than simple text captions.

This is especially true for my games page. Wow do I have a lot of folders on that page! And nearly all of them are stuffed full of apps.

I also don't have a lot of folders on my main page. Just "Tools" and "Games" (which is actually my favorite games). This is mostly because I think the folder icons are kinda ugly? They also look cluttery.

 

[Soulcrux]

I feel that a better solution would be to allow us to delete the crap apps that Apple forces into iOS (i.e. stocks).

I think it's funny how the iPhone comes with all the crap apps in a folder already, like Apple saying "yeah, we know you never use these apps, here we already put them away for you"

I also don't have a lot of folders on my main page. Just "Tools" and "Games" (which is actually my favorite games). This is mostly because I think the folder icons are kinda ugly? They also look cluttery.

Yeah, they are pretty ugly. I've pretty much got it to where my front page is with all the apps i know ill use alot, and the second page is all the folders (Tools, Lifestyle, Social, Games, Utilities, Entertainment) and the Google app.

On my iPad i have enough apps that i can make each page a category "News/Magazines, Games, Utilities/Productivity Apps" but i cant do that with my iPhone, so i get all frustrated at the chaos. I have a friend who just organizes everything in alphabetical order, but i think that's just silly since i doubt ill use "AP News" more than "Facebook"

 

[grahamnp]

I like the idea of folders and I think the iPhone should have it from the start but I think the execution is poor. The icon is next to useless for identifying the folder contents and it is slow to open on my 3G. Even on the iphone 4 all the unnecessary animations just take time and I would prefer the option to turn them off like in CategoriesSB which opens instantly. Also, iOS 4 allows us to have more apps than ever before and to have a limit of 9 apps per category seems kinda stingy and "Games", "Games 2" isn't ideal.

 

[Gryzor]

So i have a two-pronged relationship with Folders.

1. Apps that I would only use ever once in a while, but still needed to have on my phone for the "in case" scenario (for example, Urban Spoon, Remote, etc) would often clutter up my screens, so folders allow me to stuff groups of these apps into one icon. But..

2. I feel that having the ability to just hide away an app encourages me to download random apps that I won't really use. Also I'm scared that by hiding away the app ill be even less likely to use it than if it was out on the screen. I feel like some sort of crazy person X0

Anyone else feel this way?

You feel "scared"? Seriously, you have a problem. Seek help.

 

[orangemog]

I wish we could choose images for our folder icons. Right now my eyes glaze over when I have a page with several folders on it and I sometimes can't remember where I stuffed a certain app or what category I'm looking for. My mind works better by visual clues rather than simple text captions.

I did exactly that using the emoji keyboard. Got the idea from another poster on here, I think it was in the iOS4 features thread.

 

[iWright]

I find I don't know what to put in folders. If I don't put anything in them I feel like I'm wasting a feature and if I put everything in them it looks a bit ugly and not in its native layout
.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Having a page full of just folders is pretty drat dumb and defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. Always remember that accessing a folder is an extra tap and is the same like swiping to the second page. All this discussion about how folders are ugly is retarded. You are not supposed to have everything in folders. You are basically fighting clutter...with clutter. Use folders to complement your page, not BE your page.

Tip for the first page [from an Apple employee]:
Keep apps you use more than once a day on the first page. Not in a folder. Apps you open daily but may be one or two times, group in a folder and place also on the first page.

 

[maflynn]

I've always thought the iPhone's screen could get easily cluttered. I mean why add the ability of a wallpaper on the screen, when its covered with icons?

The folder mechanism appears to be the best solution for apple's iphone UI, its not perfect but it gives the user the ability to clean up and/or organize his screens.

 

[ipoddin]

Having a page full of just folders is pretty drat dumb and defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. Always remember that accessing a folder is an extra tap and is the same like swiping to the second page. All this discussion about how folders are ugly is retarded. You are not supposed to have everything in folders. You are basically fighting clutter...with clutter. Use folders to complement your page, not BE your page.

Tip for the first page [from an Apple employee]:
Keep apps you use more than once a day on the first page. Not in a folder. Apps you open daily but may be one or two times, group in a folder and place also on the first page.

That's how I do it.

 

[jbennardo]

I have native icons for anything on the first page and in the tray. I keep all my folders on the second page because those are generally the apps I don't use frequently.

I put some apps in folders and I find myself not using those apps as much as I used to. I used to check the weather in the morning because the icon was there. I'd check facebook and twitter.. now? not so much. I still have to figure out the best way to use this feature.

 

[Fireproof!]

That's how I do it.

Exactly - me too.

 

[maturola]

I feel that a better solution would be to allow us to delete the crap apps that Apple forces into iOS (i.e. stocks).

I tell you, stocks is gone from my phone since I think 2.1, on one of my jailbreaks I hide it and that app have never show up again even after several upgrades and actually new hardware (3G>3GS>4, of course after a restore from backup). I think that setting is saved on one of the users files so it always come back from the backups (just like my carrier file that instead of AT&T reads "hacked" always.

 

[jbennardo]

Tip for the first page [from an Apple employee]:
Keep apps you use more than once a day on the first page. Not in a folder. Apps you open daily but may be one or two times, group in a folder and place also on the first page.

Thanks that's great advice!

 

[bobob]

I love the folders, but now I would like the ability to create aliases of apps to go along with it. There are several key apps that I would like to have in multiple folders for convenience.

(I think it might best be implemented by double tapping on the icon when it is in edit/move mode and creating a graphically identifiable but almost identical icon for the alias.)

 

[OneMike]

My only issue with folder is that they can only hold 12 apps.

 

[uttrekr]

My only issue with folder is that they can only hold 12 apps.

Indeed - that limit really is too low.

 

[bunnicula]

My only issue with folder is that they can only hold 12 apps.

Same here. I've got, like, 4 folders for games already. I like having them, because sometimes I'll play one I've not thought of in awhile.

But, it would be way easier to just have one folder for them all.

 

[bobob]

The beauty of the 12 app limit is that the folders open so elegantly without blocking the whole screen or requiring scrolling - - imho, it is a beautiful implementation of folders that maintains the simplicity of the iOS design.

 

[Jkazmeyer]

I agree, but I think that the icons look very ugly. I can't wait for the jailbreak for iPhone 4. So I can have categories back. I prefer to use nicer icons. I have put everything on my phone into folders, and placed them all in a single row on top of the photo used for my wallpaper, which was shot in landscape, but I am using it in portrait, so there are black bars top & bottom, which makes it perfect. My apps in the dock have a black background as well as the folders on the top row. This leaves the middle wide open so my wallpaper is unobstructed... It looks pretty cool.

 

[iCandii]

the folder icons are so ugly , but they are kinda useful.

i just wish they had a icon for the folders instead of a box with tiny app icons in it. just looks messy