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One trick Apple clearly miss here (IMO) is not having the "Home" screen centered. On iOS devices, page 1 is always at the far left. i.e. Screen 1 -> Screen 2

One trick Apple clearly miss here (IMO) is not having the "Home" screen centered. On iOS devices, page 1 is always at the far left. i.e. Screen 1 -> Screen 2 --> Screen 3 ---> Screen 4 ----> Screen 5 On a lot of Android launchers, you can have page one centered. i.e. Screen a <--> Screen b <-> Screen 1 <-> Screen x <--> Screen y What's the benefit? I can get to my two most used screens both within 1 swipe. In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens (from the Home) is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 (for the same number of screens). You could argue that some people use "Search" so much it negates this, but I think search should be accessed in a slightly different way to how Apple have it programmed in now anyway.

richbradshaw 15y ago
I've never used an Android phone, but surely that's a little confusing for casual users – at a glance is it easy to tell which is the "main" screen?
- guelo 15y ago
  The key on Android are the home screen widgets which make each screen more recognizable than on iOS where every screen is a grid of similar icons. A lot of phones ship with a big clock/weather widget on the "main" screen that makes it easy to recognize. Users then quickly learn how to customize and add widgets, after some use the look of each screen becomes ingrained and instantly recognizable.
  - bane 15y ago
    You are right, my home screen is a clock and calendar widget. A couple important contact shortcuts (for super speed dial), email, browser and navigation. The absolutely most used things on my phone. One screen to the right are the rest of my social media things and various camera apps plus the powerbar widget for turning on and off various things on my phone without heading into settings (flashlight, wifi, GPS, etc.) One more screen to the right are my various nerd tools, an ftp server, a terminal emulator, file manager, heck I even have a tricorder app and the tron bit on there. Going left I have productivity apps, google docs, drop box, a folder full of various audio apps like pandora and Tune In radio, The Kindle app, a comic book reader, etc. And finally all the way left I have games, emulators, calculators whatever sort of entertainment junk I want. I know immediately where I am on my phone at a glance and can almost navigate to it without looking. If I start to run out of space, or want more organization, I just dump a category of apps into a folder...or my Launcher lets me add more screens if I want.
- _ikke_ 15y ago
  When you hit the home button, you go to the hoem screen. There are also visual indicators that show on which screen you are.
- bane 15y ago
  Yes, everything defaults to that screen. To quit an app for example, you hit the home button and it automatically flips to the middle "home" screen. The "back" button goes back to the last thing you were looking at (a sort of stack based approach kinda like a web browser, but across the entire OS). So if you are in an app, launched from the left-most screen, and want to get to another app on the left-most screen, you might hit "back" and it'll background the app and put you on the left most screen. Given the same scenario, if you want to go to the right-most screen, it's easier to just hit "home" and swipe twice.
alex_c 15y ago
Psychologically, I prefer scrolling right to scrolling left. Don't ask me why - maybe it's the "going forwards" versus "going backwards" mental model. Or maybe starting from the home screen, I don't like having to make a decision to go left or right, and would rather just keep flicking right until I find what I need. My Nexus One has the layout you propose, and I don't prefer it to iOS.
- cheald 15y ago
  Give LauncherPro a whirl. It'll let you pick which screen you want as your default, so you can scroll right all you'd like.
- codyrobbins 15y ago
  It’s likely because we read from left to right. And bear in mind that ‘right’ being correlated with ‘forwards’ is a cultural convention—other cultures may code such relationships differently.
dpark 15y ago
> In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 That's the best-case scenario. Another scenario is that you don't have perfect memory and don't always recall where all 80 (5 screens of 16) of your apps live, so you go to the right looking for an app, and you don't find it, so you then have to go to the left, for a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a pretty common scenario for most people with enough apps to fill 5 screens.
- commandar 15y ago
  My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your most commonly used apps - I have a page with a handful of social networking apps, one with news apps, etc. Everything else gets left in the app drawer, which is organized alphabetically and can be easily scrolled through or searched.
  - dpark 15y ago
    Then how is the question of screen swipes even relevant? If you're not using the left and right screens, then it's kind of a moot point. I'm not trying to be rude here. I seriously just don't see how the left and right screens can be considered a benefit if people don't use them.
    - Macha 15y ago
      Some people don't use them. commandar for one, obviously. However, others make a lot of use of them. (Myself, cristoph and CoffeeDregs in this set of comments, for example). So for the people who don't use them, it's a moot point, but for people that do, it's a nice advantage. (I think you may not have realised commandar's and cristoph's replies were not written by the one person)
      - dpark 15y ago
        I knew they were from different people. I think my point stands, though. If you do use 5 pages filled with apps, then the "swipe the wrong way" problem seems inevitable. And if you don't, then the comparison is kind of moot. Certainly, offering the option to put apps on the left of "screen 1" is not a problem if that's what you prefer. I'd probably never use that if I were on Android, though. Of course, Apple already uses "screen 0", so the "swipe left" option is already taken by search.
Geee 15y ago
It seems like the N9 solves these types of problems perfectly. Three dedicated home screens in 'carousel', each with vertical scrolling, no other menus and a swipe to exit an app. Very simple but very powerful. Every screen is at max two swipes away and usually just one, from an app. Can't wait to try it out, it might not work as well as it seems.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  I'm pretty hyped about it too. But party of me worries about what happens when the new car smell wears off.
- woobar 15y ago
  I also like their idea of 'just swipe'. But I see one big issue - phone cases. Swiping from the edge of the screen is very difficult when you have a protective case.

richbradshaw 15y ago

I've never used an Android phone, but surely that's a little confusing for casual users – at a glance is it easy to tell which is the "main" screen?

guelo 15y ago
The key on Android are the home screen widgets which make each screen more recognizable than on iOS where every screen is a grid of similar icons. A lot of phones ship with a big clock/weather widget on the "main" screen that makes it easy to recognize. Users then quickly learn how to customize and add widgets, after some use the look of each screen becomes ingrained and instantly recognizable.
- bane 15y ago
  You are right, my home screen is a clock and calendar widget. A couple important contact shortcuts (for super speed dial), email, browser and navigation. The absolutely most used things on my phone. One screen to the right are the rest of my social media things and various camera apps plus the powerbar widget for turning on and off various things on my phone without heading into settings (flashlight, wifi, GPS, etc.) One more screen to the right are my various nerd tools, an ftp server, a terminal emulator, file manager, heck I even have a tricorder app and the tron bit on there. Going left I have productivity apps, google docs, drop box, a folder full of various audio apps like pandora and Tune In radio, The Kindle app, a comic book reader, etc. And finally all the way left I have games, emulators, calculators whatever sort of entertainment junk I want. I know immediately where I am on my phone at a glance and can almost navigate to it without looking. If I start to run out of space, or want more organization, I just dump a category of apps into a folder...or my Launcher lets me add more screens if I want.
_ikke_ 15y ago
When you hit the home button, you go to the hoem screen. There are also visual indicators that show on which screen you are.
bane 15y ago
Yes, everything defaults to that screen. To quit an app for example, you hit the home button and it automatically flips to the middle "home" screen. The "back" button goes back to the last thing you were looking at (a sort of stack based approach kinda like a web browser, but across the entire OS). So if you are in an app, launched from the left-most screen, and want to get to another app on the left-most screen, you might hit "back" and it'll background the app and put you on the left most screen. Given the same scenario, if you want to go to the right-most screen, it's easier to just hit "home" and swipe twice.

alex_c 15y ago

Psychologically, I prefer scrolling right to scrolling left. Don't ask me why - maybe it's the "going forwards" versus "going backwards" mental model. Or maybe starting from the home screen, I don't like having to make a decision to go left or right, and would rather just keep flicking right until I find what I need. My Nexus One has the layout you propose, and I don't prefer it to iOS.

cheald 15y ago
Give LauncherPro a whirl. It'll let you pick which screen you want as your default, so you can scroll right all you'd like.
codyrobbins 15y ago
It’s likely because we read from left to right. And bear in mind that ‘right’ being correlated with ‘forwards’ is a cultural convention—other cultures may code such relationships differently.

dpark 15y ago

> In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 That's the best-case scenario. Another scenario is that you don't have perfect memory and don't always recall where all 80 (5 screens of 16) of your apps live, so you go to the right looking for an app, and you don't find it, so you then have to go to the left, for a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a pretty common scenario for most people with enough apps to fill 5 screens.

commandar 15y ago
My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your most commonly used apps - I have a page with a handful of social networking apps, one with news apps, etc. Everything else gets left in the app drawer, which is organized alphabetically and can be easily scrolled through or searched.
- dpark 15y ago
  Then how is the question of screen swipes even relevant? If you're not using the left and right screens, then it's kind of a moot point. I'm not trying to be rude here. I seriously just don't see how the left and right screens can be considered a benefit if people don't use them.
  - Macha 15y ago
    Some people don't use them. commandar for one, obviously. However, others make a lot of use of them. (Myself, cristoph and CoffeeDregs in this set of comments, for example). So for the people who don't use them, it's a moot point, but for people that do, it's a nice advantage. (I think you may not have realised commandar's and cristoph's replies were not written by the one person)
    - dpark 15y ago
      I knew they were from different people. I think my point stands, though. If you do use 5 pages filled with apps, then the "swipe the wrong way" problem seems inevitable. And if you don't, then the comparison is kind of moot. Certainly, offering the option to put apps on the left of "screen 1" is not a problem if that's what you prefer. I'd probably never use that if I were on Android, though. Of course, Apple already uses "screen 0", so the "swipe left" option is already taken by search.

Geee 15y ago

It seems like the N9 solves these types of problems perfectly. Three dedicated home screens in 'carousel', each with vertical scrolling, no other menus and a swipe to exit an app. Very simple but very powerful. Every screen is at max two swipes away and usually just one, from an app. Can't wait to try it out, it might not work as well as it seems.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
I'm pretty hyped about it too. But party of me worries about what happens when the new car smell wears off.
woobar 15y ago
I also like their idea of 'just swipe'. But I see one big issue - phone cases. Swiping from the edge of the screen is very difficult when you have a protective case.