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iOS 14 concept
- Thread starter roland.g
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I'm sure a lot of concept designers would be more than happy to help you with this if you're willing to pay them. 
I think the iOS springboard has lasted this long because it works.
People coming from the Windows/Mac world transpose the springboard as the equivalent of their desktop. It's not and it doesn't need to be. It's the app launcher. The lock screen is closer in function to what the desktop performs. There's no point of an empty home screen and an added step of opening an app launcher like on Android. The lock screen is your "empty screen" with a wallpaper and notifications and widgets.
People coming from the Windows/Mac world transpose the springboard as the equivalent of their desktop. It's not and it doesn't need to be. It's the app launcher. The lock screen is closer in function to what the desktop performs. There's no point of an empty home screen and an added step of opening an app launcher like on Android. The lock screen is your "empty screen" with a wallpaper and notifications and widgets.
LMAO unusable. Do you know what unusable even means?
You’re just bored, try android if you’re bored. It’s supposedly a lot better. I’ll see you when you get back.
But I should scroll left to check my battery life, time, latest notes (which actually one shows one with no details)? What about having that information, my wallpaper, and the Apps I use, on the same desktop? Too mind blowing for this forum?
Don’t be that guy. It is horrid. It wasn’t designed for the quantity of apps we have. It doesn’t manage app organization well and the folder system is aesthetically bad. With so many apps it is bad at providing a system of quick intuitive access. Not going to use Android. Don’t ever want to. And this is not out of boredom. I have believed the Springboard UI is overdue for an innovative overhaul since iOS 10. In addition, the coverflow style app switcher is poorly implemented. I know why they won’t drop it but there are more functional alternatives to the app switcher that would be much more efficient. Case and point that the iPad doesn’t use the same app switcher. Why not implement that same two row scrolling (vertical) app switcher on the iPhone. Boredom. No. I only briefly tried Jailbreaking during iOS 10 and found that development for jailbroken tweaks was dying off and a lot of the better mods had not been ported past iOS 9 since jailbreaking was becoming more and more difficult. I only used it for a few months at most. I believe Apple is the source for our innovation and they need to make a quantum leap. They likely won’t because the ordinary everyday users like soccer moms and grandpas couldn’t handle a major departure. I have the genesis for what I think that overhaul could be, but I believe Apple could do much better than my rudimentary ideas.
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My issue is not icons. It is icon and app organization and management. Folders are no longer an adequate method of managing apps. It worked well with lesser numbers of apps but is cumbersome as our app usage has expanded. Maybe for grandpa with 25 apps in his phone. I have 242.
Swipe down, type the first couple of letters of what you want to open, whether it's content (messages, mail etc.) or an app. Describe something more efficient than that.
You could do that. But then why have the pages of apps, folders, the dock. Just search for all your needs.
You will search when you can't find. If your most-used apps are on one page, why do you bother searching?
Do you use 242 apps every day? I have 2 pages of apps and a dock. The dock has the apps I use multiple times a day, the first page has my most frequently used apps and my second page has logically organized folders with apps that I might use on occasion. I’m always able to find my apps because everything is within 2 levels of drilling in. I rarely have to use the search function.
It’s a very efficient system and I can’t imagine how you could get more efficient. What do they do on the Mac? It’s arguably harder to find an app on the Mac if it’s not in the Dock. Previously, you’d have to go into the Finder, then to the Applications folder and find your app in the file system. How was that better? It wasn’t. They ported the App Launcher to Mac which is a nearly identical method to iOS. On the Mac, if I need an app, I’ll use Spotlight. The same is available in the pull down search on iOS.
Not sure what you are talking about on Android. The home screen is customizable. If you want app icons there. You can put app icons there. If you want to group them on the home screen in folders, you can. If you want a mix of apps and widgets. That is okay too. It just normally comes from the factory with widgets on the home screen. You're free to change that whenever you want. Heck, if you don't like the Home app (launcher) you can change that too.
Personally, I just have apps and less used apps grouped in folders. Just as I do with iOS. As I hate swiping around trying to find everything.
“Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” - Steve Jobs (no need to remind me he passed, but I like to think someone over at Apple still thinks this way!)
I’ve been on these forums for +10 years. And an Apple fan for even longer, for the past years I’ve been waiting for iOS to take a leap forward the way Mac OS X did for the Mac, but year after year i’m disappointed. And as many pointed out the fact that “dark mode” is the biggest overhaul we’re getting in over 2 years is a shame.
I’ll stay because Apple’s ecosystem is unbeatable.
But with all the beautiful iOS concepts we’ve seen throughout the years and dare I say, competition Apple should indeed raise the bar. Its a shame we still need apps to take us to content when its content that should take us to apps. Apple was late to the game with widgets and the implementation was tacky at best. I dont use it because I forget it’s there.
The focus has unfortunately been lost, my media no longer seems to be a priority. I get that the future is with AI and augmented reality, and improved security but in a near future usability, flexibility, versatility of the platform still matters.
I can’t wait for Apple to announced that the user interface (the way it looks) and most of all the user experience (the way you interact) has been redone from the ground up. The user interface has changed a lot over the years but the user experience not so much.
I’ll be in front of my TV in june 2020 hoping this year is the year Apple “gives me what I want before I know I want it”
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Haha unusable. It’s a platform to launch your apps and get things done. It’s perfect for that. For those who absolutely must have a weather widget on their home screen, there is always Android.
I wish the widgets would stay on the home screen in portrait like it does in landscape on ios13.
I didn’t say iOS. I said Springboard. It is antiquated and doesn’t adequately address the needs of the evolution of iOS.
How is the tried and tested 12 year old springboard unusable?
What are your suggestions? Besides widgets (a swipe over, where the should be), what are you looking for? Any information I could want from the app otherwise is, in the app.
He hasn't made any suggestions. He just wants somebody to come up with a way for him to organize his 250 apps. Who's going to break the news to him that they haven't done anything differently on macOS? On the Mac, you go into the Finder to look at the file system where a folder of Applications resides and where your apps are in. Or you can search for the app with Spotlight which is also available in iOS. Or you use the new App launcher which looks a lot like a version of the home screen that we have on iOS.
If I had to redesign the home page this is what I would do.
- Allow users to put icons anywhere on the home screen while still maintaining the 4X6 grid that is in place now.
- update the dock to support 5 icons:
- A hard coded app launcher in the middle of the dock that is modeled after the launchpad on MacOS so users are automatically familiar with what it is and what it does and allow 2 icons to the left of it and 2 icons to the right.
- If a folder is added to the dock it would behave like MacOs (stack,fan out etc)
- Force touch mail icon to pop your inbox so you can quickly see your e-mails without having to launch mail
- Force touch the weather icon to glance at a more detailed weather screen
- Force touch the calendar to look at "Today".
I do and don't agree with this.
It isn't usable.
I am a long time Android user. And I always root my android phone, and install custom ROMs. I had an iPod touch 1st Gen 3 months after launch and I had it for years, I finally upgraded to a 4th gen then a 5th gen.
Never had an iPhone until about 2 weeks ago. I now have an iPhone 7 (stock not jailbroken), and I still keep my HTC 10 around to use as my "work phone".
My iPod touches, they were always jailbroken. I used to put custom icons everywhere and change things. Now, in my 6+ year absence from iOS I've found things not too different than they used to be. The thing that all the iOS fanbois don't get is that Android varys greatly from device to device. My personal favorite has always been either HTC sense, or stock "AOSP" android (the pixel uses this). My least favorite is anything Samsung has. Samsung has without a doubt the worst android distro, filled with the most bloatware and has the ugliest UI, and worst user experience. Ironically samsung phones always seem to be where iPhone users go (if they go), or the only phone they test other than an iPhone.
Stock android is very, very simple. It is way more simple than iOS 12 is on my iPhone 7. My HTC runs stock android 9.
Here are the things that I think iOS needs in order to keep up:
If I had all of the above in iOS I would be perfectly happy.
It isn't usable.
I am a long time Android user. And I always root my android phone, and install custom ROMs. I had an iPod touch 1st Gen 3 months after launch and I had it for years, I finally upgraded to a 4th gen then a 5th gen.
Never had an iPhone until about 2 weeks ago. I now have an iPhone 7 (stock not jailbroken), and I still keep my HTC 10 around to use as my "work phone".
My iPod touches, they were always jailbroken. I used to put custom icons everywhere and change things. Now, in my 6+ year absence from iOS I've found things not too different than they used to be. The thing that all the iOS fanbois don't get is that Android varys greatly from device to device. My personal favorite has always been either HTC sense, or stock "AOSP" android (the pixel uses this). My least favorite is anything Samsung has. Samsung has without a doubt the worst android distro, filled with the most bloatware and has the ugliest UI, and worst user experience. Ironically samsung phones always seem to be where iPhone users go (if they go), or the only phone they test other than an iPhone.
Stock android is very, very simple. It is way more simple than iOS 12 is on my iPhone 7. My HTC runs stock android 9.
Here are the things that I think iOS needs in order to keep up:
- An app drawer. Yep. Look, I have a ton of apps. I don't want them all on my desktop. I want some of them on my desktop. (and no, lock screen is not a desktop, it's a lockscreen which IMO needs to be a clock and a wallpaper; maybe the weather). My HTC gets a clock widget on the first page, frequently used apps on the second, and a full month view calendar on the third.
- A better notification center. On android, I can swipe something and it goes away before I even pull down the notification center. iOS makes me pull down the notification center, and I can either clear all, or swipe and then press clear. Unnecessary extra steps.
- The control center is almost terrible. This is one of the things I actually added into "iPhoneOS" back in the day with jailbreaks. I'm happy iOS has one at all but it is only sort of useful. Its hard to open to the point its faster to go into settings half the time. And when it does open, the only useful thing I can do is change the brightness or skip a track. Disconnecting wifi is a useless feature; I want it off. First thing I do when I get in my car is pull down my android notification center/control center and turn off wifi. My iPhone makes me open the settings app to achieve this.
- The last two things that I can think about off the top of my head have finally been addressed in iOS 13. Swipe keyboard, and a volume slider. I would like to be able to skip tracks by long-pressing volume up or down (backwards or forwards), but that feature is actually a custom ROM add-on in android so I won't hold my breath on that.
If I had all of the above in iOS I would be perfectly happy.
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Serious question - How would you propose better and more intuitive management of 242 apps? Just curious what you think would be more efficient within the confines of the screen sizes available. Is it something that Android does already? Or do you have something totally different in mind?
Old and stale, sure. Unusable? For who?
For the vast majority of people the problems you have don't exist. If Apple were to change the fundamental way people have interacted with their iPhones for 12 years how long do you think it would take for twitter to erupt with a trending hashtag calling for Apple to revert iOS bacK? People hate forced change more than they hate stagnation.
Rule of thumb: Don't fix it if it ain't broken, and for most people, this isn't even close to broken.
My post above addresses this for me. It is something android has done since release. Android homescreens do everything that iOS does, but lets you put which apps you want on it. This is fundamentally the same thing that computers have done for years - what Mac OS has done since 1984. Your apps are easily accessible from one place, but not cluttered. Classic Mac OS had the apple menu, that was fully customizable and you could put whichever apps you wanted there; you could also use the desktop in the same manner. Windows obviously adopted this with the start menu. Mac OS X added the dock...See where I'm going? There's a few different ways that many apps could be managed in a better way, and android has been doing it since it's first incarnation.