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On my phone I have about 20 apps that I use frequently, 200 people that I need to contact, and about 2000 documents in the form of media files and notes. It se

by bhousel 13y ago

On my phone I have about 20 apps that I use frequently, 200 people that I need to contact, and about 2000 documents in the form of media files and notes. It seems obvious to me that application-centric design is the simplest way to organize my computing device. I think pinning people or documents to the main menu would make things way too cluttered and confusing.

rm445 13y ago
But if those people are your spouse and best friend? The apps on your main menu are the everyday workhorses, not the niche utilities. It would be the same with documents and people I think the article author has a great point, but it isn't a paradigm to overturn all others. Just a position that people-centric should be a first-class use case, up there with people-centric and app-centric. Let's put it another way - do you frequently open Acrobat or Excel then use File -> Open to navigate to a file? I am absolutely positive that most people click on the file most of the time. In the same way as OSes have favoured apps - phone main screens, the OSX dock, desktop icons, pin to taskbar - there is usually a selection of often-used, easily accessible documents - desktop icons, document stacks, recent files, favourites etc. Why not have your favourite people in the most-accessible areas? Of course, one answer is that we are still most of all still file-centric, and there isn't a common container for person-with-all-their-contact-details. (And not just their contact details: the person container could have all kinds of indicators of their status and recent activity, at whatever level they have shared with you). But phones are busily trying to squash the file metaphor as it is, and the 'main screen tile' is a general kind of container that can be, already has been, extended to have person-centred features. I think we will see more of this, and we won't all like all of it, but as a whole it will be a step forward.
deleted 13y ago
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by bhousel 13y ago

rm445 13y ago

But if those people are your spouse and best friend? The apps on your main menu are the everyday workhorses, not the niche utilities. It would be the same with documents and people I think the article author has a great point, but it isn't a paradigm to overturn all others. Just a position that people-centric should be a first-class use case, up there with people-centric and app-centric. Let's put it another way - do you frequently open Acrobat or Excel then use File -> Open to navigate to a file? I am absolutely positive that most people click on the file most of the time. In the same way as OSes have favoured apps - phone main screens, the OSX dock, desktop icons, pin to taskbar - there is usually a selection of often-used, easily accessible documents - desktop icons, document stacks, recent files, favourites etc. Why not have your favourite people in the most-accessible areas? Of course, one answer is that we are still most of all still file-centric, and there isn't a common container for person-with-all-their-contact-details. (And not just their contact details: the person container could have all kinds of indicators of their status and recent activity, at whatever level they have shared with you). But phones are busily trying to squash the file metaphor as it is, and the 'main screen tile' is a general kind of container that can be, already has been, extended to have person-centred features. I think we will see more of this, and we won't all like all of it, but as a whole it will be a step forward.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]