These are some ideas that I was thinking about and they would solve a coulple of problems .. App organization & App launching.
Since the Spotlight Search screen is used to search through every app .. extending it's capabilities makes a lot of sence. Not only can it provide a quick way for a user to find something but it can also provide the user a way to keep things organized and easily accessible from one location instead of search through-out their screens.
Update the Spotlight Search screen so that it integrates more features. The bottom navigation would list the the following items just like in most iPhone apps (Phone, App Store, .. ). It would list Favorites, Recents, Categories, Search and More / Settings. Each item is explained below.
Open this link to see image of bottom navigation:
http://bit.ly/L80Vq
Favorites
Recents
Categories
--> All (x) (New)
--> Entertainment
--> Finance
--> Games
--> Hidden (x) (New)
--> News
--> Photography
--> Push Notifications (x) (New)
--> Private (x) (New)
--> Productivity
--> Social Networking
--> Sports
--> Utilities
Spotlight Searchbar
More / Settings
Favorites - Shows a list of apps that have been marked as favorite by the user. This list can be any number of apps.
- Can be listed by alphabetical order, last accessed, most used or organized manually (through Settings).
- To add or remove an app to this list, the user can click on edit and a list of all apps shows up. The user can then select or un-select the ones they want.
Recents - Shows list of the last, recent apps that have been used. The number can be configured by the user but a list should be presented as an option. Something like the last 10, 25, 50 or All apps should be listed.
- Also, an option to clear this list is needed. That way the user can reset it at anytime.
- An option to list all apps that have never been used could be placed at the bottom of the list.
Categories - If categories is selected it would then have a sub-menu of lists to select from (just like the Games category in the App Store). For one, it would list all categories of all the apps that are installed (no need to list categories that are not being used) on the iPhone and it would also have a few extra. The extra categories would be "All", "Hidden" and "Private" would be listed here. "All" would just be used to show all apps at once, it would allow the user to scroll through the whole list of apps installed on the iPhone. "Hidden" would show all the apps that have been marked as hidden from the main screens and "Private" would show apps that have been marked as private and require the Passcode to run them. Each item is explained further below.
All - Shows a list of all apps that are installed on the iPhone.
Hidden - Shows a list of apps that have been marked as hidden for the purposes of them not showing up on the main screens and taking up real-estate. This would allow for "single purpose" or "infrequently" used apps to be on the iPhone but not on the main screen.
- This list is just used to configure what apps are marked as hidden.
- This feature comes in handy when a user wants to have two or three screen worth of apps but still wants access to all the installed apps.
Push Notifications - Shows a list of apps that have new Push Notifications.
Private - Shows a list of apps that requires the iPhone Passcode to launch them. Instead of just having a system wide Passcode that is only prompted once when the iPhone is unlocked this feature should be extended for certain apps. This way the user can configure it to prompt for the Passcode everytime the app is launched or after a certain amount of time. This could be configured by minutes, hours or entire day. Also, another option is that it wouldn't need the Passcode to be enabled for the phone itself because the user might just want to lock certain apps and not the whole iPhone. It gets tiring having to enter the Passcode several times during the day. Providing this option will help with enterprise companies that are worried about security.
- The Passcode is required to enter and make changes to this category (if not within the time window specified).
Search - When the user swipes right and brings up Spotlight Search it currently shows the searchbar and keyboard. This would need to be changed so that the keyboard shows up only after the user taps on Search. It should work exactly how the search feature works on Maps app. The user taps on the search bar and it brings up a few search options like Clear, Done and the keyboard. Then they all go away when you're done. Or it could be just like it works on the App Store app.
* All categories can be displayed in a few ways. List (just like with in the App Store app), Grid (just like on iPhone main screens) or Cover Flow (just like within Mac OS X). These views would give the user a great way to view a list of their apps and a way to search and open them. Each category could have it's own view set.
* Also, the option to mark an app as Favorite, Hidden or Private should be available from within the main screens when in app manage mode. Once the icons are shaking, if the user presses and holds on that icon for two seconds without moving it, a list shows up in the form of an alert message and the user can select or un-select Favorite, Hidden or Private.
* When in App Manage Mode and the icons are shaking, it should have indicators showing whether it's marked as a Favorite (star badge), Hidden (icon can have an lower opacity) or Private (pad lock badge). The icon badges can appear on the lower left corner of the app icon next to each other. If the user selects to set an app Hidden, the icon will have a lower opacity but only until they hit the Home button. At that point the app icon disappears since it has been set to hidden. The option to have it show at a lower opacity is just to indicate that they have selected that option and they can un-do that option before applying the changes or later on from within the Hidden category.
* All, Hidden, Push Notifications and Private are accessible from within the Categories list.
