The today screen is your window to your device, neigh your window to the world depending on how you use your device. How it looks, and how it performs is an issue that has been discussed for ages. Customising your today screen is one of the first real mobile device experiences, that new users have, whether it be a dedicated Pocket PC or a converged device, and all of us want to maximise that experience.
When you acquire a new Windows Mobile device, and complete the initial configuration, you come up with this standard today screen, that, is lacking but functional! By default the today screen has a heap of windows plug-ins, that most serious users seem to avoid. Opting for what are considered more powerful third party programs to manage their today screen experiences. So what constitutes the “Perfect Today Screen”? Is it having everything you need in one place, so it’s easily accessible, or is it a great image and lots of slick icons, to get ooh’s and ah’s from people?
Let’s face it, if you’re looking at the today screen your probably not getting too much done, we only really become productive once we actually open and application and start working with it. I’ve seen some some incredibly beautiful screen layouts, and I realise that quite a few people put a huge amount of time and effort, even learning specialist scripting languages so they can even better customise their today screens. An incredible effort for those so inclined, but really what is the point, There’s only a limited amount of useful information that you can display on your devices screen at any one time. Yet if you look at the today screen posted, how much Ram and power is consumed to maintain that painting. Other than the new headline notification and weather data, it’s not really supplying much information. I have to start tapping for more functionality, Ram use goes up and the device is even more compromised, as far as starting and running applications. With that today screen, look at the numbers, 7.2 Mb of ram left. is your today screen compromising your device usage? That’s not a real lot out of 64 Mb and I have found that the device starts quicker and has to be soft reset less with a more simplified today setup.
Theirs pros and cons to have everything on your device accessible from the today screen, and one of the cons is clutter, It’s like having too many icons on any desktop, things become hard to find after a while. I for one prefer something much more minimalist, with direct access to the main things I use every day. with as few taps as possible. Mail, time, calendar, PIM, internet search and of course my RSS feeds. A really simple layout that serves my needs all with stock standard plug-ins.
No matter how you do it, you’ll find everyone has an opinion on what the perfect today screen should be like, and with some new interface options like Home UI, and the recent look we’ve had at what Windows Mobile 7 is shaping up to be you’ll have plenty of more options as well.
So how do you build your perfect today screen?
