Concept: Quickly Moving Apps Between Pages

I’ve been running into a frustrating issue on both my iPad and my iPhone lately. After purchasing or downloading a new app, the device installs it on the last home-screen, in the last position available, and I then have to move it. This can get annoying.

The Problem

The crux of the problem is this: Moving a freshly downloaded application from the last home-screen to the first home-screen requires a lot of finagling and quite a bit of luck. Often times I find myself holding onto the jiggly icon and praying that I can move it fluidly to the location I want it. Generally, I’ll lose track of the icon or have to slide between too many home-screens, and what was supposed to be a quick gesture, turns into a couple of minutes of frustration.

Proposed Solution

I’ve mocked up a proposed solution that works as follows: 1) The user performs a gesture on the app icon, either a double finger hold, or a swipe, the options are relatively endless. (The only gesture that can’t be used is a single finger hold, since that currently invokes the “jiggle-move-delete” combination).

2) Once the user performs the new gesture (either the double finger swipe, or a double finger hold), a new contextual fly-out menu appears displaying a grid of numbers. Each number represents a different home-screen. 3) Click on a number and that app is moved to the corresponding home-screen. The fly-out menu would be smart enough to know how many home-screens the device’s owner is currently using, as well as knowing what screen you’re currently viewing. Additionally, it would be able to tell how close it is to any particular edge of the device, and would popup accordingly.

Additional note: Folders are not a solution to this problem. They alleviate an entirely different set of issues revolving around app organization and access. The issue I’ve outlined in this article would work hand in hand with Apple’s implementation of Folders in iOS.

Keep in mind this is purely conceptual and I’m entirely open to feedback. I’d love to hear any and all thoughts that anyone has pertaining to this issue. Most of all, I’m curious to see what pitfalls this proposed solution has.

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