December usually means wish lists, but beyond lists full of toys, iOS fans are still creating their wish lists for the next evolution of the operating system. Previously we shared a nifty concept and design idea that addressed notifications, and this time we’re going to suggest that you check out another design concept, but this time it’s for the lock screen.
As of right now, the lock screen is fairly simple. Clock, slide to unlock, camera access, and if you quickly double click the Home button, an overlay of music controls. Notifications can hit the lock screen as well, but often these do little more than simply allow for a quick link into an application.
Over on Techblock, writer Brent Caswell discusses a more informative and dynamic take on the lock screen. The main idea for his design is “Lockscreen Cards,” which allow different apps to display information on the lock screen. Each of these has their own double click function, similar to the music controls currently. The example Caswell uses is expanding the weather card to display a five day forecast. The current function that allows you to swipe the camera app upward is changed by the cards to allow you to open to an app directly. Like the notifications we looked at, this seems like a plausible step, but would require some serious API changes.
It does seem that we’re seeing more and more of these mockups, and they are all centered on making access to information easier. Caswell posits that this change is necessary to keep up with the design advancements made by Google, and that Apple needs to focus on improving its use of web services. This is another concept that would seem to work well without changing the interface too drastically, but considering Siri hasn’t gotten a proper API and the opaque nature of the iCloud API, this would seem to be a cultural change more than a design decision. It does prove that people are looking for something stunning from iOS 7.
Source and Photo Credit: Techblock
