Thursday, December 15, 2011

iPhone Home Screen Set-Up

My Brother recently got a used iPhone and we talked a little bit about how the home screen pages are set up. I thought it would be fun and perhaps instructive to share my set-up. It's in a semi-constant state of flux, but this seems to be working pretty well for now.


The Dock
My most used apps: Phone, Messages, Mail and Calendar. There are probably 3 other apps I could easily switch out with Calendar (FeedlerRSS, RTM or Camera), but it's what I have now.


Page 1
Generally, all the apps I use a lot are one tap away. I then have 3 folders full of all the social media apps I can't live without. :) I also like having the Camera in the upper right corner - it just feels right.

I used to have other mini-clusters the Photos-Instagram-Camera (like Facebook-Twitter-FeedlerRSS), but that's recently been lost.


Page 2
The land of semi-wanted apps. I put everything else into a folder. I'm not sure what I'm going to do once one of these fills up. Break the folder into 2 groups? Not sure, but for now it's working nicely.

I actually use the Reminders app regularly, but it's all using Siri, so it can hide on the second page. I also use the Music app regularly, but a quick double tap of the Home button and left swipe reveals the app and it's controls - so it too can hide in the A / V (Audio / Video) folder.

I also like to put stand alone apps along the left-hand side. Before folders, each left hand column was important, but folders makes that less necessary. I still think it looks more esthetically pleasing.


Page 3
This is my games page, which is in need of at least another folder (Sports and... something...). The iPhone is a fantastic gaming device and the GameChannel app promotes a couple paid apps, for free, each the day.

I think I've totally re-arranged my games page 3 times since October, so this is definitely something I'm still figuring out.


Notifications
I only show the weather widget. I don't show up-coming calendar events or new email (that's way too much info). I also turn off almost all badges, and all my alerts are banner.

2 comments:

  1. Luke buchanan12:57 PM

    Nice! Here's my home screen: http://imgur.com/ujRZG (tweaks done with Cydia)

    I've always been fascinated by how different people arrange them. You can make some mostly accurate assumptions about them based on what their home screen looks like. 

    I make a point of doing 2 things with my home screen:

    1. Putting the most used apps at the bottom of the page, not the top. This is because my VERY most used apps are already on the dock, plus my thumb is probably traveling from the home button or lock screen, and both of those are on bottom.

    2. Moving my apps around a bit. Even if all the apps stay the same on the home screen, I like to move them around every few weeks and catch my brain off guard. It's a way of always creating new muscle memories, rather than settling in to the same one. Most techies don't like change, and when an app overhauls a UI, or Apple builds a new iOS and moves a button, people freak out. This is my way of creating change, so that when change happens, it's not a big deal to me. 

    I could go on... but I think that's enough! 

    Luke

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  2. jamesfurlo2:17 PM

    Very cool. I like the idea of having the most important ones on the bottom, I'll have to try that out.

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