Possible explanation for new Lock Screen style Notifications Centre

[MacDevil7334]

I think the point of it is consistency. Why were there two totally different pieces of UI (the lock screen and Notification Center) that both housed notifications but didn’t look or work the same? Why could you swipe to get to camera on one, but not the other? The point of of the Cover Sheet (thanks for rooting that out @Dj64Mk7), I think, is that the same functions, the same gestures, the same everything is available no matter where you are in the UI.

Ok I could see that as a possibility. But that seems like an awfully big step back on the notification side of things for the sake of consistency. And I still don’t really feel like it was a necessary change. The lock screen has been understood to be a screen where notifications are displayed when the phone is locked since literally the first iPhone was sold. And the Notification Center has been basically the same since it was introduced in iOS 5 as a place to view all of your notifications when the phone is unlocked.

Maybe this idea of a central Cover Sheet will grow on me as I use iOS 11 more. But Apple will really need to do some user education about this change, as it will be very confusing to people who are used to the lock screen being a lock screen. And I still don’t see why the clock needs to waste so much space or why the music widget is there and not on the widgets page. The consistency argument, while definitely the best explanation I’ve heard so far, still seems a bit flimsy.

 

[Paddle1]

"Cover Sheet"

View attachment 708442

I found two instances of "Lock Screen", seems like so far they’ve only changed it in relation to notifications. (Battery icon for proof it's iOS 11)

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

Ok I could see that as a possibility. But that seems like an awfully big step back on the notification side of things for the sake of consistency. And I still don’t really feel like it was a necessary change. The lock screen has been understood to be a screen where notifications are displayed when the phone is locked since literally the first iPhone was sold. And the Notification Center has been basically the same since it was introduced in iOS 5 as a place to view all of your notifications when the phone is unlocked.

Maybe this idea of a central Cover Sheet will grow on me as I use iOS 11 more. But Apple will really need to do some user education about this change, as it will be very confusing to people who are used to the lock screen being a lock screen. And I still don’t see why the clock needs to waste so much space or why the music widget is there and not on the widgets page. The consistency argument, while definitely the best explanation I’ve heard so far, still seems a bit flimsy.

Referring to the part in bold . . . . this design change is mainly for the iPhone X, but they are trying to get a (slightly clumsy) compromise that can still reasonably serve existing iDevices.

Repeating my thoughts from the 1st post, if the iPhone 8 launches with Facial Recognition, as soon as you glance at your phone it will unlock. So there is no need for a lock screen for iPhone 8.

Today's iDevice users mainly use the lock screen for 3 things;

1) A quick check of the time

2) Checking notifications

3) Music Control

That's why these things and more are combined in the new Notifications Centre / Cover Sheet or whatever it is to be called.

I agree with you on the wasted space in the layout though, but wasted space seems to be a theme of iOS 11.

One person's wasted space, is another person's "clean design" I guess.

 

[GreyOS]

Your point about checking the time made realise what a bad idea 'unlock and open on look' could be... hmmm

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

Your point about checking the time made realise what a bad idea 'unlock and open on look' could be... hmmm

Yes - I probably check the time about 20 to 30 times a day, I've never counted obviously, but it must be something like that when you stop to think about it.

 

[strategicthinke]

The funnynhjng is that I absolutely loathed the idea of unifying those two things. But...
(1) The UI of bringing the wallpaper/background back with the swipe down movement makes no sense whatsoever. So much for the "layers" concept that I loved since iOS 7.
(2) I believe that the inconsistency of behaviour between the Lock Screen and Notification Center was a problem, indeed, and I am glad to see them addressing it.
(3) My main concern is that, while the new "cover sheet" is growing on me, the functionality of the Lock Screen was much limited compared to the Notifications Center... and I am afraid they are going to compromise the new "Notifications" instead of progressing with the much needed power-up of those functions... Now that's worrying - just make Lock Screen more powerful, not the other way around, Apple. It's not like you're not 3 years behind Android in regards to notifications. (And that comes from a huge iOS enthusiast that sees it as the future of computing.)