CiancaLog

I’m frustrated with the limitations imposed on my use of apps on the iPhone.

The entire model for organizing the apps that I have purchased is severely restrictive and counter-intuitive, actually, rather non-Apple from a UiX perspective.

First and foremost is the limitation on the number of installed apps. There is simply not enough room to display the apps that I actually use as well as those that are more occasional/transient, such as games or books.

While the new iTunes interface is a help towards the management of the apps, it doesn’t provide better models for managing groups of apps.

For example, the option to sort by date purchased should be added. There should also have a means to save an entire page of apps and replace it with another, assuming that we are going to be stuck with the current limitation on the number of installed apps that are visible.

Second, the interface itself should allow the user to configure pages of apps by their own category.

If I can setup a group called “Network Utilities”, that has 20 apps, I should be show 2 pages for that group with the corresponding apps.

There should also be a mechanism to quickly jump from the “home” page to any of the application groups that have been defined, such as double tapping the hope button brings up an “Expose” style display of all the groups.

Another sore point in the user experience is the lack of a “recents” apps. When you have 200 apps installed, some only accessible via Spotlight, and you get a call, its a royal pain in the arse to have to locate the app one was just using.

Why can’t the user simply tap the recents and have a “coverflow” style display of apps that they used?

Perhaps a solution would be to open up the SpringBoard API to developers and allow the developers to create new and novel ways to navigate and launch apps they are using on the iPhone and/or iPod Touch.

This would be an ideal solution to the management of apps on the iPhone.

Updated with the following found videos:

Expose

Coverflow