Home Screen Design

   

      I recently upgraded my smart phone to the Samsung Galaxy S5. You may notice by the picture that it looks quite different from the display in the store. One of the first things I do is customize the home screen...
It's one of the advantages of owning an android phone and makes the phone truly my own. Some people enjoy the process and others not so much. I always try to make the home screens unique looking without sacrificing functionality. In reality, you can actually increase functionality with just a few tweeks. 

     For me the process always begins with choosing a wallpaper that I really like and gear the theme of the phone towards that inspiration. My favorite wallpaper app is Zedge. Anyway I thought I would explain some of the design choices and what effect they have on the operation of the phone. 

1. Google Calender widget... Upcoming events are always in view and appointments may be set with one click (notice the blue of the widget matches the blue swoop in the wallpaper).

2. Digital Clock Xperia....Pretty good clock widget but there are lots of good ones. I made the numbers match the color of the Samsung logo since that is part of the wallpaper. From here I can set alarm, timer, and stopwatch. It shows battery percentage because I don't like a notification bar (settings in Nova Launcher). There is an option for weather too but looked a bit cluttered to me so I put weather on the next screen. It is a good one called 1weather.

3. I use my phone right handed most times so I keep the icons justified right but only halfway up and across the bottom. That way my thumb easily reaches them with no stretching. All my other screens are the same way so muscle memory keeps me from fumbling around.

4. Since I use Nova Launcher (a great customizing tool) many of the icons do double duty. My goal is to have as few clicks as possible. Example: The Gmail icon will open the Messaging app if I swipe up on it. All of the folders I have set up will of course open the folder but if I touch it but if I swipe up, the app in the foreground opens. This saves many clicks while saving screen space.

5. Double pressing the home button from here opens the phone dialer. Speed dials are set up.

6. Long pressing the home button brings up the Google Search (Google Now), for quick questions to Google.

7. Double tapping the home screen brings up the camera.

8. Swipe up anywhere on wallpaper brings up the app drawer. This saves home screen real estate.

9. Swipe down anywhere on wallpaper brings down the notification shade. This keeps me from stretching my thumb all the way to the top of the screen.

10. Pinch in brings up a commonly used app My Fitness Pal.

11. Pinch out brings up another commonly used app Twit Pro.

12. Two finger swipe down brings up the calculator.

13. Two finger swipe up brings up settings.

As stated this setup minimizes the number of clicks making commonly used actions easier to use. I just found out today that if I long press the icons in the notification shade, it will open the settings for that function. 

Maybe you have some ideas for Android customization. I like seeing how others make their phone their own.