For those not familiar with WP8, this is exactly how Windows Phone tiles work with a few minor interaction details. It does introduce a cool peek concept not available in tiles.
Pushing iOS
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Re: Pushing iOS
#22Couldn't all that he wants be provided by implementing a "native" Apple UI/UX on top of Android? It feels like all his points have been solved by Android for quite some time. Still, I like this block concept... it's a good compromise between widgets & actually starting the app.
Yes, a custom Android launcher would be able to implement this (though it might be a little tricky to figure out how to make the transition between app icon and widget since some apps don't have widgets, some have multiple widgets). Given the way the Android community has picked up on these sorts of things in the past, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone creates a launcher that implements this relatively soon.
Try Action Launcher for android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionlaun...)
Implementation here is , when you swipe up on an app icon it opens the widget related to that app
Re: Pushing iOS
#23I love the general concept and agree that iOS is sorely in need of more customisation, and that Windows Phone probably has the right balance already.
"But, if you want more information about an app, you can simply pinch the app icon bigger and it will now become an iOS Block."
I physically tried this and it just feels awkward. The 'pinch to zoom out gesture' on iOS (e.g. maps, photos) generally has your fingertips about 1-2cm apart in my experience. To pinch an app icon seems quite clumsy and difficult for my medium size fingers... if I had big beefy sausage fingers I can imagine it would be quite a challenge!
Re: Pushing iOS
#24BlackBerry 10 has had this for the last year or two, but who cares right? http://developer.blackberry.com/design/bb10/active_frames.ht...
So long as the author wasn't aware of this, what difference does it make"?
Re: Pushing iOS
#25Some weird comments in there, but I do like the blocks concept, but removing the text for just app icons isn't going to be really helpful if an app updates and changes the icon and the user doesn't know where the search pull down is.
Why not just have a scroll-over function?
Re: Pushing iOS
#26Nicely done, I am impressed. Because everyone is mentioning that's like Android's Widget-Concept, and Android already solved this - that's not the case in my opinion. I think it's too complex for users to know what a "widget" excatly is. This is more the concept of: Show me a little bit more than the app-icon - and that's it. Imho the user would understand the concept immediately and don't have to know what actually…
To be honest, it's exactly the same as Windows Phone tiles, if you haven't tried it already.
Re: Pushing iOS
#27I love the general concept and agree that iOS is sorely in need of more customisation, and that Windows Phone probably has the right balance already. "But, if you want more information about an app, you can simply pinch the app icon bigger and it will now become an iOS Block." I physically tried this and it just feels awkward. The 'pinch to zoom out gesture' on iOS (e.g. maps, photos) generally has your fingertips ab…
You wouldn't need to touch the icons directly. I imagine it would pick up the icon in the middle of a spread or pinch gesture as long as the touches started within like N pixels (based on the size of the app/icon) of each other.
I really think it's a really great idea.
Re: Pushing iOS
#28I love the general concept and agree that iOS is sorely in need of more customisation, and that Windows Phone probably has the right balance already. "But, if you want more information about an app, you can simply pinch the app icon bigger and it will now become an iOS Block." I physically tried this and it just feels awkward. The 'pinch to zoom out gesture' on iOS (e.g. maps, photos) generally has your fingertips ab…
Maybe replacing the pinch with a swipe down or a pull down on the icon will make it easier for users with sausage fingers. The icon could then fold out from both sides like a card instead of just growing with the stretch out.
Re: Pushing iOS
#29Nice mock-ups, but I disagree with most of the premises here. As far as I can tell, iOS doesn't have much problem with people leaving due to some quibble with the UI's supposed lack of sophistication. I'm sure there are some exceptions among HN readers, but among the very few people in my circles on Android, all cite screen size as their main reason. Japan, a country that's been at the cutting edge of the mobile market for decades, is flocking to the iPhone now that it's available on the big carriers - not what you'd expect if there was widespread perception of iOS as "dumbed down".
The only thing I definitively agree with is that I hope Apple supports multiple profiles for iPad. As someone that uses both Android and iOS pretty regularly, I don't think widgets add much that the Notification shade and Action Center don't handle capably. I mostly hope that iOS 8 is invisible - add some APIs for Siri and hooks into home automation, improve performance.
Re: Pushing iOS
#30Nice mock-ups, but I disagree with most of the premises here. As far as I can tell, iOS doesn't have much problem with people leaving due to some quibble with the UI's supposed lack of sophistication. I'm sure there are some exceptions among HN readers, but among the very few people in my circles on Android, all cite screen size as their main reason. Japan, a country that's been at the cutting edge of the mobile mark…
all cite screen size as their main reason.
Just one data point, but it was "keyboard" by far for me. The iOS keyboard is horrible and very difficult to customize so I took a risk and switched at my last update (and FWIW, I'm finding Android streets ahead in terms of functionality). Digging the larger screen size is something that came later for me but would definitely be another reason not to go back for me now.