What Should Windows Phone do with the Leftside Pane of the Start Screen

[Donny James]

Move the notifications to that side. Swipe left/right for more options and not a dropdown.

Yes and use the swipe from top to bottom to close apps like Windows 8. This would have been a good idea if MS didn't put the notification center there. But hey wet can't always get what we want right?

 

[berty6294]

I have the perfect idea for the left side pane! This is so incredibly simple yet so brilliant!

Instead of having to swipe left and then click the search button, we can swipe right and a search box slides over and the keyboard pops up.

So simple, so perfect.

 

[melvintwj]

Majority are talking about implementing notifications, settings, shortcuts to that pane. My idea is.. How about an app?

User can choose an app which matters the most to them and access it from that pane. Say, WhatsApp. I just have to swipe over to the left pane and it's the homescreen of the WhatsApp app.

It makes Windows (Phone) have a more unique and personal experience. Just think of the possibilities. Swiping over at you can scroll through your Instagram feed if you're a hipster (I kid). Swiping over and you can see tweets from your friends if you chose Twitter as the app. Or maybe a camera app, one swipe and you're ready to snap away.

Don't know if it's possible to implement this, but I thought it is a really cool idea.

 

[Llordy]

Majority are talking about implementing notifications, settings, shortcuts to that pane. My idea is.. How about an app?

User can choose an app which matters the most to them and access it from that pane. Say, WhatsApp. I just have to swipe over to the left pane and it's the homescreen of the WhatsApp app.

It makes Windows (Phone) have a more unique and personal experience. Just think of the possibilities. Swiping over at you can scroll through your Instagram feed if you're a hipster (I kid). Swiping over and you can see tweets from your friends if you chose Twitter as the app. Or maybe a camera app, one swipe and you're ready to snap away.

Don't know if it's possible to implement this, but I thought it is a really cool idea.

I had initially though about this too, but it guess that would just kind of defeat the purpose of the live tiles which are supposed to give information at a glance and quick access to the app in the start screen. (may also hinder performance, app always running)

Creative idea nonetheless.

 

[Darthbobcat]

I do like the idea of having SOMETHING on the left side. I couldn't tell you what I think that something should be, though. Notifications are already taken on the front, app search and alphabet is on the right, and Cortana comes up with you hit search... hm.

Maybe something OEM defined WOULD be the thing to use, but I don't see what it would add to things.

One idea that occurs to me would be to make it an alternate way to see your open apps, the way that the swipe in-swipe back on the left side of the screen does in Windows 8. That actually seems slightly faster than holding down the back button.

 

[FarStrider2001]

Majority are talking about implementing notifications, settings, shortcuts to that pane. My idea is.. How about an app?

User can choose an app which matters the most to them and access it from that pane. Say, WhatsApp. I just have to swipe over to the left pane and it's the homescreen of the WhatsApp app.

It makes Windows (Phone) have a more unique and personal experience. Just think of the possibilities. Swiping over at you can scroll through your Instagram feed if you're a hipster (I kid). Swiping over and you can see tweets from your friends if you chose Twitter as the app. Or maybe a camera app, one swipe and you're ready to snap away.

Don't know if it's possible to implement this, but I thought it is a really cool idea.

1st thing came to mind is the panels feature the se x1 had

 

[Madam ImAdam]

I think adding functionality to the start screen by utilizing a left to right swipe is a great and needed idea. Perhaps the functions that the action would bring up could be user customized, but I would love to have it replace our duplicate the back arrow of the capacitative key. I use battery saver most of the time, and cannot easily find those keys when I need to.

I think it would be useful if the e first left to right swipe would bring up your last active app screen, then additional l to r swipes would bring up favorites, user set favorites like mail or photos or settings, for example. Maybe three or four pre-set favorites after functioning as a back button. Swiping right from any of these would bring up the current app list immediately, continuing right to left swiping would go back to the start screen.

 

[PaulMilbank]

Great and good looking concept. I really miss this from my Nokia N9. Swipe from the right to get to apps and from the left for an update stream from apps, email, twitter, facebook, weather etc. I would have preferred this kind of differentiating feature to the new notification shade that just copies Android.

 

[Makm]

How can the left pane of the Start Screen be used in Windows Phone?
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This is a great question regarding the customizability that the OS can potentially offer.

In my opinion, I like the aesthetic design of the OS very much, but I also feel that manufactures may be holding back from jumping unto the Windows Phone bandwagon because they cannot differentiate themselves visually as they can on Android. This seems true to a degree as consumers mostly recognize the experience of respective manufacturers in a visual sense, such as TouchWiz on Samsung devices, Sense on HTC, et cetera.

I would like to think that Windows Phone could offer a compromise here by allowing OEMs to make a custom and unique experience for their consumers in a UI which they can overlay in the leftward side of the Start Screen (i.e. swiping to the left of the Start Screen rather than the right which is current the apps list)

View attachment 82848

That way its more like how PCs and Windows Mobile were differentiated from OEM to OEM.

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How do you all feel about potentially having this sort of customizability? (It might even be open to developers)
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***Please note that we're not talking about how this will impact the performance of Windows Phone. Just think of it as an ideal, that Microsoft could somehow improve the performance than even on Windows Phone 8***
Be sure to leave a comment sharing your ideas, thoughts and dislikes.

Great concepts, I wish if windows phones were like this...