Hey Crackberry, I just thought of an idea while I was coding the thumbnail view for my upcoming bb10 app. Please let me know what you guys think.
Right now, BB10 is using active frames to show what apps are open and running, and they have them in thumbnail views. What I'm finding slightly annoying is the fact that these active frames page on the homescreen only allows 4 apps, even if i have more open. Also, if I go into another app it moves them so they are in order of last used (this is a smart idea, but when im jumping quickly from app to app, my brain remembers where the app i just got out is and my finger clicks there, but it moved.
I think Blackberry can do something more with their active frames/thumbnails:
Instead of having the active frames as their own separate page on the homescreen, why not have the thumbnails in the pages on the app icons themselves. When open the thumbnail can replace the space that the app icon and three other apps around it have. See image 135 in attachments which shows a page. Then see the image onethumb which shows you the thumbnail embedded into the page UI. What happens to the three other apps? They just get pushed down and you get vertical scroll navigation on the page.
EVEN COOLER:
Now they can also have the ability for users to open app thumbnails without opening the full app. The could use a gesture like pinch to zoom on the app icon for example, or even double tap the app icon to just open the app's thumbnail. Sometimes it takes 1-2 seconds to open an app when you only need the information the thumbnail has, if blackberry only opened the thumbnail it could render this information much quicker.
EXAMPLE WEATHER APP:
An example of using this is say I just woke up and about to leave the house and want to quickly check the current temp and weather all I have to do is pinch to zoom (or double tap) the weather app icon. This will open the thumbnail will show my city, a background image of sun for sunny temp, and says 15 C. Then I just reverse pinch to zoom (or double tap again) to close the thumbnail. This way i don't have to open the whole app and waste time opening information I don't need. If i wanted to open the full app, all i need to do is press the app icon once as regularly we do, or if the thumbnail is open and we still want to see more, you can press the thumbnail view.
This follows the whole idea of blackberry being efficient and fast. Many other examples include transit app thumbnail to show next bus timings, music player to quickly start playing the song. See attached pictures for examples of when multiple thumbnails are open.
What do you think guys and anyone at RIM who likes this, please talk it over with your superiors. We are all helping to make BB10 amazing at launch. Add me on bbm at 2A09A86E if you guys have some suggestions too and like me is dying to share with people. Thanks have fun, and having coding/
Right now, BB10 is using active frames to show what apps are open and running, and they have them in thumbnail views. What I'm finding slightly annoying is the fact that these active frames page on the homescreen only allows 4 apps, even if i have more open. Also, if I go into another app it moves them so they are in order of last used (this is a smart idea, but when im jumping quickly from app to app, my brain remembers where the app i just got out is and my finger clicks there, but it moved.
I think Blackberry can do something more with their active frames/thumbnails:
Instead of having the active frames as their own separate page on the homescreen, why not have the thumbnails in the pages on the app icons themselves. When open the thumbnail can replace the space that the app icon and three other apps around it have. See image 135 in attachments which shows a page. Then see the image onethumb which shows you the thumbnail embedded into the page UI. What happens to the three other apps? They just get pushed down and you get vertical scroll navigation on the page.
EVEN COOLER:
Now they can also have the ability for users to open app thumbnails without opening the full app. The could use a gesture like pinch to zoom on the app icon for example, or even double tap the app icon to just open the app's thumbnail. Sometimes it takes 1-2 seconds to open an app when you only need the information the thumbnail has, if blackberry only opened the thumbnail it could render this information much quicker.
EXAMPLE WEATHER APP:
An example of using this is say I just woke up and about to leave the house and want to quickly check the current temp and weather all I have to do is pinch to zoom (or double tap) the weather app icon. This will open the thumbnail will show my city, a background image of sun for sunny temp, and says 15 C. Then I just reverse pinch to zoom (or double tap again) to close the thumbnail. This way i don't have to open the whole app and waste time opening information I don't need. If i wanted to open the full app, all i need to do is press the app icon once as regularly we do, or if the thumbnail is open and we still want to see more, you can press the thumbnail view.
This follows the whole idea of blackberry being efficient and fast. Many other examples include transit app thumbnail to show next bus timings, music player to quickly start playing the song. See attached pictures for examples of when multiple thumbnails are open.
What do you think guys and anyone at RIM who likes this, please talk it over with your superiors. We are all helping to make BB10 amazing at launch. Add me on bbm at 2A09A86E if you guys have some suggestions too and like me is dying to share with people. Thanks have fun, and having coding/