Fluid Home Screen for Mobile Phones

Abstract

It is no more uncommon to find mobile devices with a large number of applications downloaded and installed. However a limited display capability makes it difficult to display a large number of applications or icons. Therefore optimisation of the display area may be desirable to enhance the user experience. This thesis attempted to propose a unique solution, by providing a framework which would ease developer experience as well as improve user experience. In order to find the solution, usability study of current as well as classical home screens was taken. This study helped to identify three main gaps in the current model of home screens; larger view area needed for the application pinned to the home screen, accommodating more application icons on the home screen and interaction inside view area of the application. After some iterations of mock up, two potential solutions were deduced. Both solutions are able to accommodate more application icons, provide a larger display area and interact inside the display area. The only difference between the two solutions was that one provides the display area alongside other application icons, while the other provides a display area floating above other application icons. The only consideration with these solutions is that of memory consumption, which can be reduced by splitting and loading application states instead of the whole application.