Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Danny Ennis

I have owned an iPhone for nearly 10 years now, and for whatever reason, I’ve never really given much thought to the way that I arrange my app icons on my home screen. The same four icons have been in my bottom (fixed) row since I got my 3G iPhone, and the Messages app has been in the top left since it was just an SMS app.

How I originally arranged my app icons, from left-top-to-bottom in order of importance. With a smaller screen size, this was fine

It makes sense. We read from left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Apps should be arranged from left-to-right, top-to-bottom in order of importance to make it easy for us to read them.

The problem is: we don’t really need to read app names. We rely on muscle memory.

With my previous devices, I never had an issue with this arrangement, since my hand could always reach the furthest corner of the screen even when holding the phone with just one hand.

And coming from an iPhone 6, I always was hesitant to go for the 7+ or 8+ because part of what I liked about the iPhone was how comfortable and natural it felt holding it—like it was designed to fit in my hand, and my hand was correct for the iPhone.

However, the iPhone X is just a little too tall to make a full reach across without feeling like too much of a stretch.

As a designer and someone who thinks about design from a UX perspective frequently, I wondered if there was a better way. So I started thinking about a better solution.

Why do I arrange the icons in order of readability when I mostly base my actions on muscle memory?

The rearranging began.

I started mentally ranking the apps I use in order of frequency—correlating frequency of use to ease of reach.

Messages app was moved from the top left to the bottom right. Instagram, Clock, Notes, Safari, and Mail were moved to be easily reachable. Camera, Yelp, Sonos and iTunes were relegated to the next reach away.

Suddenly, I didn’t care that the phone screen was so tall. I could access anything I wanted with relative ease, and could tap less-frequently used apps with a long reach or second hand.

Then I put the calendar in the top left—because that’s the one app that actually has a useful redability function to it (it shows the current date). Left-to-right, top-to-bottom makes sense here.

App icon arrangement after prioritizing frequency of use by how easy it is to reach the icon

How did I decide the exact placement of my apps? I kept icons in rows or columns similar to where they were before, to reduce the time it would take me to adapt.

The Maps app is now an easy reach away, but in almost the same location as before. This is because I know I’ll need to access Maps quickly, to put in a destination while on the move. And I need to be able to open the app without looking at my phone.

All in all, I’m on day two of this rearrangement, and I’m not fully adapted yet. But I already feel less annoyed at the extra-long screen size, and I know that the rest of my actions will catch up soon enough. With the home button eliminated, there are enough gestures and visual cues to adjust to. This change comes at a time when it’s easy to readjust.

How the iPhone X made me reconsider my app icon arrangement from a UX perspective was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How the iPhone X made me reconsider my app icon arrangement from a UX perspective

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