[Version 1.0 uploaded! I’d call it “Stable”, with most, if not all interactions and elements defined.]

Hello world! Hurrian here.

Following news of the Nemo UI rewrite, I decided to chime in with my thoughts of how a mobile UI should be like.

And following the naming scheme on here, I’m calling it Glacier – a smooth, liquid UI, on ice.

It’s a primarily high-contrast UI with light, airy text on dark backgrounds, borrowing heavily from contemporary design paradigms – Android 4.x, Firefox OS, iOS 7, OS X, Windows 8, Sailfish, and MeeGo-Harmattan.

Lockscreen:

• A simple, large clock, with the date underneath is shown. The background under the text is always darkened and blurred to enhance the readability of the text.
• Notifications are lined up under the clock – tapping on these will unlock/prompt for the unlock code (if any), and open the app.
• Swiping the lockscreen away from the top edge lands you on the Search page
• Swiping the lockscreen away from the bottom edge lands you on the app launcher.
• Swiping the lockscreen away from the left edge lands you on the Event View
• Swiping the lockscreen away from the right edge lands you on the Multitasking view

The rationale behind different targets for different swipe zones reinforces the user’s spatial awareness – a main point of the UI is the use of layers to imply navigation information. (Refer to the use of layers in Maemo 5.0/Fremantle and MeeGo-Harmattan)

Search:

• Search uses Tracker’s indexed database, making searches fast
• Search can prioritize results by user choice
• A short description of the action an app will perform must be under the app’s search result
• The Search page can be reached by swiping from the top edge in the app launcher or lockscreen.

Settings:

• As a list-based application, the list is arranged as the first, and foremost object on-screen.
• Large text marks list items, with a small subtitle when necessary to explain its function
• The use of titles and subtitles in conjunction with icons reinforces the mental correlation between these two

Event View:

• Items on the Event View are populated by widgets
• The user can rearrange the widgets in any way s/he so wishes
• Similar to the lock screen, tapping on the widget redirects the user to the app.

Launcher:

• All icons will have a circular background to enforce consistency, however, app developers may choose to create their own custom icons with a not-perfectly-round profile.
• The use of color and not-perfectly-round icons makes apps easily recognizable
• Apps are not hidden into folders, rather, they’re grouped into categories, which may be labeled by the user
• Gaps in the app grid are permitted, for those users who insist on certain layouts

Multitasking:

• Borrowing from Sailfish, a minimized app view is available.
• Notifications can be put on the minimized app view, allowing quick access to them (and replacing the traditional notifications menu)
• Borrowing from OS X’s Mission Control, the app icon and name are displayed on the bottom of the minimized app to let users quickly recognize the app

Sample apps – Camera:

• The app’s focus is put front-and-center
• UI chrome is left as minimal as possible
• Controls are not hidden in gesture menus (more like Harmattan, and unlike Sailish’s pulley menus, which in certain contexts could be confusing, the removal of which causes a consistency issue)

Sample apps – Browser (and notifications!)

• The notification pushes the active app up (and floats?) for a few seconds (see Harmattan in the lockscreen when someone calls/alarm fires)
• The active app partically covers the notification, further indicating to the user that a swipe action can be performed
• After a few seconds, the app comes back down, and an edge glow and app icon are shown to indicate an unread notification.

Sample apps – Messaging

• Contact name is on top, with a small contact icon and availability (if services are connected) indicated by a green glow.
• Ordinary chat bubbles. Move along…
• Message type (SMS/IM/etc.) indicator – allows for unified messaging with a contact (Fremantle!)
• Spacious virtual keyboard

Sample apps – Music Player

• Just like in Harmattan, the album cover is put front-and-center
• To save screen space, the app header and back button are overlaid on the album
• The music progress is overlaid on the bottom third of the album cover. Drag it to quickly skip around the song.
• Album/playlist song list is below the song/album/artist title, instead of hiding it behind the album cover, like Harmattan
• Pause/previous/next buttons are at the bottom

Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me a mail (kenneth <{[gnat]}> meta <{[dot]}> mm <{[dot]}> am).

I’ll be continuously updating this post as I get comments and remarks.