Organising Apps

[Skip if you don't like 600+ words of someone going on and on about every little detail on their fave gadget]

I think, when everyone gets a new phone/computer/digital device, they set about customising it so that it reflects their personality. I've done this twice, once when I got my Macbook, and once with the iPhone, and I kinda was involved when my brother did it for his iPad. What you get is an initial frenzy of modifying/tweaking settings, picking the background, installing programs, etc. Then it cools down as you settle into using the item, and you only then make changes and add programs on an ad-hoc basis. And I'm there now with the iPhone - everything is pretty much settled, and I won't be adding any apps for a while now, except a few popular game ones. But, I can't have my computer disorganised, and I can't have my phone disorganised, so I've settled on an ordering system which I'm now happy with. (Real life, by the way, is different. I can deal with varying states of neatness, depending on context)

To begin: The lock screen: (click for full image)


I picked coloursplash as my background. It's a beautiful piece of digital art, and the resolution of the iPhone 4 shows it perfectly. It's one to take your breath away. As for the home screen, I decided to pay homage to Apple by selecting a small area of the default background that came with Mac OS 10.3. Do a google image search for "Panther Aqua". It's a nice, calming blue, and stays in the background, allowing you to focus on the apps themselves. I decided not to go for Islamic wallpapers, like I have on my computer, because I'm kinda uncomfortable with touching them, as such.

The Main Home Screen:


The Dock has the most important apps, and the most central to the phone's usage. We have the phone app, and the messages app, and Safari (web browsing) and the App store. These four make up the core of the phone's usefulness, and I want to be able to access them from any screen, which is why they are in the dock.

Quirk #1: I only ever fill up three lines on any screen with apps, leaving the fourth free for swiping across screens. I don't actually tell anyone this, but people instinctively touch the empty space when swiping across, so I know it works.

Quirk #2: I keep my apps/ folders in complementary pairs where I can. You'll see it across the all the screens. The only place I admit where this is not true is the first four on this screen, the last four on the last app screen, and Settings/ Youtube, where I couldn't find anything else to pair either with.

I keep mainly Apple-made apps on this screen, and the first four take priority over the rest. Then, it's quite easy to see the links for the complementary pairs:
Camera/ Photo,
iTunes/ iPod,
Utilities I/ Utilities II. Utilities I has stuff like Stocks, Maps, Voice Recorder, Game Centre, etc. Utilities II has meh-ish apps that I use on occasion, like ATM Hunter.

Screen II:


This one has the best of the rest. I probably use the apps here the most, after the ones in the dock.

Things/ Routines (Productivity)
Skype/ eBuddy (communication)
Accounts/ Natwest (finance)
iBooks/ Flickr (literature/photography)
Downloads/ Dropbox (downloading/file storage)
Games I/ Games II (as if I need to explain this one)

Screen III:


This one has a second tier of apps, which I use on occasion, but not as much as the others

Argos/ Amazon (shopping)
VLC/ iMovie (watching video/ editing video)
Remote/ Mobile Mouse (controlling my laptop from my phone. This is too cool)
Movies/ IMDb (cinema)
Lighsaber /Crazy Shodo / LiveScore / FreeAppADay (the aforementioned four apps that I can't find pairings for)

Screen IV:

This is for web apps/ web bookmarks.

DF/ Apple insider (tech news)
Glyphboard / OpenAppMarket (neatish apps that I rarely use)
BBC iPlayer/ TVCatchup (Web video)

And there you have it. There is one more screen, but that's used by my brother to collect apps in anticipation for when he gets his iPhone.

-------------

Next, top 10 apps by usage.