12 mobile technology redesigns
6 specific mobile technology redesigns
- Speech to Text Messaging: Currently, most mobile operating systems don’t have an instantaneous way to use speech to text messaging. A cool design solution to fix this is as follows: When a text notification is displayed on the top of user’s phone, if the user holds down their finger on it, raises the phone to their ear, and talks after a short beep, they can talk through the mouthpiece and the phone would instantly convert the speech to text and send it.
- Home Screen: In most operating systems, the home screen is the left most screen of apps or the middle screen of apps. This makes it inconvenient to visit the left and right most pages so in my redesign, I would allow a right-to-left swipe on the rightmost page to take to you the leftmost page. This same concept would apply from the leftmost page. Although this is a simple redesign, I feel like this is an easily implementable and useful function.
- Reminders: In iOS, the reminders app is not intuitive and easy-to-use. It takes too much effort to figure out how to add a simple reminder. You have a choice of adding a reminder to a variety of different lists but that shouldn’t be the primary focus of the app. The purpose of a reminders app should be to add very simple, short time reminders that have a timer next to the reminder. In my redesign, I would make a VERY simple interface that accomplishes the main task that a reminders app should emphasize: a simple task with a specific time period to complete it in. After a user completes their task, they can simple swipe to delete it!
- Weather: In iOS, the weather app has greatly improved since its inception. Now, its much more detailed with hourly, daily, and weekly weather conditions. However, it can still greatly benefit from a redesign. Since most people check the weather application to figure out the conditions in an area they are in or going to, they need a way to quickly access weather. In the current iOS app, there should be a page that allows you to search for a location and quickly access the weather without adding to your bookmarked weather locations. In my redesign, I would add a left-most page on the weather app that just takes a city input and pulls up that city’s weather.
- Contacts: In iOs, the contacts app has all the numbers of people you have manually inputted into your phone. However, when unknown people text you and you have conversations with them, their name isn’t inputted in your contact list until you manually enter it. When you try to reach this person again, you have to scroll down through your text messages or recently called list and figure out which number belongs to which person. An easier system would be to put all the most frequently talked to recent numbers at the top of your contact list. That way, you can see which numbers you speak to most often and therefore which numbers you should input into your phone. It’s a simple redesign but I feel that its quite convenient and important.
- Waiting on phone calls: Today, when you want to call someone, you need to find their number and wait for them to pick up on the other line. Although this isn’t that inconvenient, a much easier and simpler interface can be developed. In my opinion, when you want to talk to someone, it should be more akin to a request than a call. In my system, after you select a person to call, a request is sent to that person’s phone (the notification on the desired person’s phone will be exactly like a normal cell phone call). The receiving end of the call will have the option to take the call or not. If they accept, then the person who initiated the call will receive a notification that the call is ready and will be instantly connected to the their counterpart. This eliminates the waiting for the other line to pick up the phone and furthermore allows the caller to engage in other activities until the call is ready! It’s also a minor redesign but it dramatically changes how we call people!
6 companion-app redesigns
- Alerts when you are forgetting an item: If you forget your keys when you are the leaving the house, your phone can send you a message if you are a certain amount of feet away from the keys. This is assuming that the keys would have some piece of Bluetooth hardware attached to them.
- Customer profiles at work: If you are meeting a client or customer at work, you can open an application and it will tell you a quick summary of what the interaction has been like in the past, and some personal facts that you can refer to in order to make the interaction more warm
- Suggesting clothes to wear: Based on the weather outside, the application can suggest a series of clothing combinations to wear. Given your wardrobe as data, it can factor in the style, the season, the colors, and the time of the day.
- Keep track of how long you work at a computer: When you are spending time on a computer, especially at the office, you lose track of time. The app will alert you when you have been at you computer for too long based on a Bluetooth connection with your computer and your phone.
- Easily visible to do list: Since there are often a lot of errands to run at the home or the office, one always forgets what is on their plate. This app would change the main page of the phone by asking, “what else do you need to do?” and would exist ubiquitously on various pages of you application. That way it is not a hassle to record your line items.
- Measure interactions with phone: Since people often lose focus and have multiple things on their plate, this phone can track all the tasks they are trying to complete their phone and the behavior they take to try and complete them. Then it will display that data in a dashboard. People often switch applications without fully completing a previous task, so people can more closely learn from their own bad habits by monitoring it and actively changing what they do.
Brainstormed with Sachal Nanda.
My Favorite Idea
- Reminders App: I decided to redesign the Reminders App (specifically in iOS) because I believe that if the app is simplified, it can be a much more effective and popular tool for the home and the office.
Prototype
User Test/Feedback
Insights
- I should have made the app more colorful and appealing in terms of icon appearance; if the users feel good using the app, then chances are they'll like the app as well
- Even though the chronological order of the reminders is the most logical way to list the reminders, I should have given users the option to drag/drop their reminders in any order they want. The default setting should be most recent on top but users should be allowed to rearrange their reminders regardless
- I should have made the edit option on each remind accessible via an "Edit" button and not an upside-down triangle. It confuses the user because its shape or design doesn't indicate a function
- For the reminders under Old Reminders, I should have gotten rid of the upside down triangle edit buttons and just allowed users to delete reminders by clicking on the left bubble. There's no point to provide two different buttons for one function; it's a waste of free space
- When the user tries to add or edit a reminder, the input box for all the information should be wider so the user can directly input the location, time, or countdown time in the box instead of clicking another button
- I need to allow more settings for users to edit to make the app more flexible and reach a wider target audience that has different purposes
- By keeping the design consistent across all app states, the app feels cohesive and well
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