Mobile - Home and Idle Screens

Problem

You must display a default set of information and actions once the device has started, and to return to when all other user activities and actions are exited or completed.

The device OS will provide this, but certain aspects can be modified, or widgets may be loaded by the end user which must integrate with the operation of the Home & Idle screens correctly. Many of the same principles can be used for freestanding applications when the landing page offers enough functions or is used so often by the user so that, from a functional perspective, it become their home screen.

Solution

All mobile devices have an Idle screen, originally used when the device is not doing anything. This functions as a launch point, or when the user is not asking anything specific of the device. it can be considered similar to the desktop on a computer, or to a web portal. The screen provides a method to access all the applications, services stored on the device, and can often be deliberately accessed by the user without exiting applications expressly for this purpose.

Variations

The Idle Screen is the single screen that is loaded when the device is powered on, or when all applications are exited.

The Home Screens, often notably plural, encompass all the device-level menus that contain links to the applications. The Idle screen is invariably one of these Home screens.

The Idle Screen generally follows one of two patterns:

• The Idle Screen is largely occupied with status information and may have little or no access to applications.
• The Idle Screen is the center of a series of related screens with icon-based representations of many or all of the applications loaded onto the device, generally displayed as a Grid with the Film Strip pattern used to move to and between other Home screens.

Status on the Idle Screen has traditionally used fixed elements, or those with only limited customization. Widgets are now supported on many devices, which may vary from an interactive icon or interactive elements that occupy a large portion of the screen.

Some applications may appear to be continuous with the drill down method of access. Settings, for example, should be considered an application, but the interface and interaction may be so seamless that the user is unaware they have left the Home Screen drill down and entered the Settings application.

Additional features may be integrated into the Home and Idle Screens, such as lists of running applications displayed as thumbnails of the users current state or as a list of icons. Some of these additional uses of the Home Screens expand the interactivity to provide access via gestures perpendicular to the primary access.

Idle screens with status information are mostly for viewing. There may even be no direct interaction.

Multipage Home Screens use the concept of a single page larger than the viewport. You can consider this to be a Film Strip Pattern, and use it to access as many screens as desired.This is suitable primarily for touch and pen devices.

Contextually intelligent mobile devices should present the last used state to the user at all times.

Consider building interactive methods that avoid the Idle Screen and allow continuous use of the device.

Antipatterns

Ensure that users can understand the paradigm by which the Home and Idle Screens operate without training. Clear and easy access from the Idle Screen to the list of applications, including menus containing options, should be provided.

Carefully design the method you use to add, remove, or move items from the Home and Idle Screens to encourage user customization. The most common method involved press and hold to switch to an editing mode.

Examples