Windows phone home screen question

anon5658834

New member
Feb 4, 2013
253
0
0
Visit site
I have been thinking about something which kinda annoys me with WP home screen that I wish & hope MS will change. At the top of the screen where the signal bar/battery meter is not always visible is too much dead unused space. I have uploaded 2 pics of my home screen to show you what I mean. One pic I moved the home screen slightly upwards to show you that if that dead space is used you can fit more tiles on screen. With it not used you see half them tiles,too much black area. Even with this area used better the signal and battery meters can still be seen.

wp_ss_20130507_0002.png
wp_ss_20130507_0003.png

What do you all think??
 

wmgreenjr

New member
Mar 4, 2013
92
0
0
Visit site
Yeah I agree. I always OCD my tiles to just under the time. Not sure why that much negative space is there. I wish it would default higher up.
 

anon5658834

New member
Feb 4, 2013
253
0
0
Visit site
It was similar with the old 7.5 but that was dead space at the sides and top. With higher res displays coming etc to WP then perhaps MS can sort this
 

Kellzea

New member
Oct 3, 2012
413
0
0
Visit site
Its for toast notifications and the drag down bar.

Basically the space is there so that when you receive a toast it doesn't obscure the tiles.

Like above i always ocd my screen to a perfect fit, doesn't really bother me but i do get your point. Anyway, that's its purpose.
 

Gaichuke

New member
Jun 14, 2012
288
0
0
Visit site
The space is there for a specific purpose:

To make sure that the last row of Live Tiles is only halfway visible. This establishes a visual cue for the users about the direction of the scroll and that there are more Tiles available beyond the bottom part of the screen. This is a foolproof way to make sure any user even without any previous experience with touch screens will understand how the Start screen works.

Furthermore, is it really that big of a deal? You could gain a half a row of Tiles but you'd have to sacrifice quite a lot of the visual design that there currently is. I mean, that Start looks mighty busy when the negative space on the top is not there anymore, doesn't it? One of the Metro UI design guidelines asks for letting your design breathe and it does that for a reason. Negative space is not blank space nor wasted space, it's a visual design element like a button is.

There's a reason why the text in books doesn't start from the very edges of the paper, and the same applies to the Windows Phone as well.
 

WanderingTraveler

New member
Dec 23, 2012
4,974
0
0
Visit site
The space is there for a specific purpose:

To make sure that the last row of Live Tiles is only halfway visible. This establishes a visual cue for the users about the direction of the scroll and that there are more Tiles available beyond the bottom part of the screen. This is a foolproof way to make sure any user even without any previous experience with touch screens will understand how the Start screen works.

Furthermore, is it really that big of a deal? You could gain a half a row of Tiles but you'd have to sacrifice quite a lot of the visual design that there currently is. I mean, that Start looks mighty busy when the negative space on the top is not there anymore, doesn't it? One of the Metro UI design guidelines asks for letting your design breathe and it does that for a reason. Negative space is not blank space nor wasted space, it's a visual design element like a button is.

There's a reason why the text in books doesn't start from the very edges of the paper, and the same applies to the Windows Phone as well.
The start screen on a 15:9 aspect ratio screen will display 3 1/2 rows of medium tiles at most.
You can pull off 3 rows of medium tiles and still have a scrollable screen (thanks to the arrow)
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,736
Messages
2,242,598
Members
427,978
Latest member
Duouser3