In this concept we look at how widgets could make their way to the iPhone. Today, you bounce in and out of applications. We wanted to explore if a widget layer in the form of Dashboard perhaps could speed up the workflow, at least for simple tasks. 

For you to easier follow the demonstration we added a voiceover this time around. 


Thoughts not covered in the movie:

The triple pinch gesture can be invoked from anywhere on the iPhone. We feel this gesture is unique enough to be used as a systemwide shortcut. Although, since the gesture requires a two-handed action, we thought it would be convenient to be able to set it as a home button shortcut as well. This would be changed in the Setting - General - Home.

Dashboard could even be activated on the lock screen using the same gesture. However, if you have a password protected phone, this feature would be disabled to prevent unauthorized access.

Widgets should be connected to their app counter part. So a widget such as stickies should be connected to the Notes app. If you make sticky note, it would be visible in the Notes app as well.

In the case of the a widget where you need to enter text, the keyboard would slide up and the widget would be positioned above it.

The default setup of widgets could be the following: Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Converter, iTunes, Stickies, Stocks, Timer, Weather and Web Clip. In addition to that you would be able to download third party widgets from the App Store.

The Quick Settings widget in the movie is an example of a third party widget. It would allow you to quickly toggle settings that might drain your battery.

Let us know what you think!


About the What if iPhone had-movies:
In this series of concept movies we have explored some possible improvements in the GUI of a product that engage many people, the iPhone. We thought that it would be fun to hear what others think. But one must remember that Apple is a company that dont leave design issues to chance and there is probably good reason why the iPhone looks and works the way it does.

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Thanks to Gustav Rosén (Singing Drummer) for letting us use his great song About You 6.
‪http://myspace.com/thesingingdrummer‬

High res image:
http://www.oceanobservations.com/images/iphonedashboard.jpg (less info)