Incremental Widgets

Posted by cperry2 on April 11, 2012 11:38 am 8

I just got an idea for how widgets might work were they to be implemented in ios:

Consider that Newsstand is its own "special folder." It is just a glorified repository of a particular kind of app for marketing purposes, but it got me thinking.

What if you could enable opening certain apps like a folder, for a shortcut view of the specific information, toggles or whatever you wanted from it? Tapping a button (or the whole thing) in a folder will then take you specifically inside the app.

How many times have you gone into settings just to turn off/on wifi or 3G? How many times have you gone into your calendar just to survey the next couple of weeks. Notification center doesn't do those things. This is one of the issues where Android and WP are better.

So instead, go into settings, turn on "folder shortcuts" and choose what you want in it on an app by app basis. It allows for things like wifi/3G toggles in a fairly elegant way, that doesn't turn notification center into a incomprehensible mess.

So if you only use the Settings app for one or two toggles - no problem. Set it up as a "folder app", and there it is.

The advantage of this is that it also retains the simplicity of Springboard, which I think is a strength. This solution changes the functionality for the better, without ruining and aesthetic simplicity and ease of use of ios.

I admit there's one glaring issue with this - how to handle an app with a shortcut folder that is inside a folder itself. I guess it would take up the same space the app folder once occupied - not horrendous, but not great. It's highly likely you would want to put a short-folder enabled app insider an app folder anyway (still with me?).

What do you think - what's the best way to integrate widgets?