The experience of the mobile home screen being a bank of app icons that lead to independent destinations is dying. And that changes how we need to design and build digital products. In this talk I show current trends and examples and explain what it means for User Experience Design and for businesses.

1. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
K R U N C H T I M E
I NT E RACT IV E

2. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
THE HOME SCREEN IS LOSING TRAFFIC.
Mat Honan, WIRED

3. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Death of the home screen
Historically, home screen real estate has been fiercely
contested. Apps and folders have battled it out for
home screen prominence, elbowing each other out of
the way for stronger footing and visibility.

4. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Death of the home screen
Now the experience of our primary mobile screen
being a bank of app icons that lead to independent
destinations is dying. And that changes what we need
to design and build.

5. Death of the home screen

6. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Recap: Apps

7. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Recap: Apps
Apps proved a focused experience beats a broad one
on a small screen. But as they’ve proliferated,
navigating to them individually to perform simple
tasks has become cruelly inefficient.

8. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E NAPPS CHANGED EVERYTHING
BY COUNTERING
THE MESSINESS OF THE WEB.
Mat Honan, WIRED

9. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
MOBILE USE HAS EVOLVED,
BUT THE HOME SCREEN HASN’T.
Roxanne Abercrombie, Parker Software

10. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Recap: Apps
The idea of having a screen full of icons, representing
independent apps, that need to be opened to
experience them, is making less and less sense.

11. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Recap: Apps
It’s very likely that the primary interface for
interacting with apps will not be the app itself.
The app will be primarily a publishing tool.

12. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Recap: Apps
This new paradigm matches much more closely with
how real life works. We don’t live our lives in silos, like
the app silos that exist today. People start to forget
about “apps” and just think about businesses and
products and services.

13. E P I C O R C H A P T E RStill, apps won’t go away …
• Opening apps is still necessary and great for many contexts,
especially creation of new content and dedicated deep
workflows, and maybe changing preferences.
As large screens won’t go away …
• For focusing on deep analysis, creation and consumption, we
will always have large high resolution screens. The future isn’t
just screens in our pockets, it’s many screens of all shapes and
sizes.
Recap: Apps

14. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
IT’S THE END OF APPS
AS WE KNOW THEM.
Paul Adams, VP of Product, Intercom

15. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Still, apps won’t go away …
• Opening apps is still necessary and great for many contexts,
especially creation of new content and dedicated deep
workflows, and maybe changing preferences.
As large screens won’t go away …
• For focusing on deep analysis, creation and consumption, we
will always have large high resolution screens. The future isn’t
just screens in our pockets, it’s many screens of all shapes and
sizes.
The end of apps as we know them

16. The end of apps as we know them

17. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
WE’RE NOW ENTERING THE AGE OF
APPS AS SERVICE LAYERS.
Matthew Panzarino‚ Techcrunch

18. Trend: Rich notifications

19. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Interactive notifications
For a while now, you can take action directly in
notifications, eg. ‚Quick Replies‘.
Up next notification cards will enable full product
experiences and independent workflows right inside
the card.

20. Auto Shazam

21. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Auto Shazam

22. Ideas
> Retweet
> Swap player
> Share story
> 5 min late!
> Friend’s favorite
to own playlist
> Check-in
> Buy item

23. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Lifeline

24. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
3D Touch
Interactive notifications with 3D Touch:
Once you receive a notification, tap and hold on the
message to activate 3D Touch. Depending on what
type of app you receive notification from, the dialog
box prompts vary. Once you have replied to the
message, tap anywhere on the screen to go back.

25. 3D Touch

26. 3D Touch

27. Trend: Embedded apps

28. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Embedded apps
Imagine that a parent card can support a child card.
That means you don’t need to install the app to
experience the content from the child card.

29. Twitter & Square

30. WeChat

31. WeChat Pay

32. Trend: Instant Apps

33. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Instant Apps
Get the full Android app experience from links that
would otherwise open your mobile web page — like
search, social media, messaging, and other deep links
— without the need to install the app first.

34. Instant Apps

35. Trend: Widgets

36. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Widgets
Today widgets essentially offer a window into larger
apps. Developers can display pretty much anything in
their widget, and users can perform simple actions
like checking into a venue or swiping through
headlines.

37. Soccer Widget

38. Philips Hue Widget

39. Philips Hue Widget

40. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch already works like this. On the wrist,
notifications and messaging shortcuts take precedent
over the bubbly home screen of apps.

41. Apple Watch „Complications“

42. Apple Watch „Complications“

43. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Apple Watch
Apple Watch offers quick and seamless
communication methods, and one of the most used
features for many users is the ability to instantly reply
to inbound messages with quick pre-canned replies,
emojis, or a dictated message. You can even
customize these.

44. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Apple Watch
Responding to text messages on Apple Watch gets a
lot easier with watchOS 3, thanks to a new feature
that lets you scribble letters instead of just using
canned replies. It gives wearers the ability to say
whatever they want without depending on Siri.

45. Apple Watch „Replies“
http://www.apple.com/watchos/

46. Trend: Search As Navigation

47. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Search As Navigation
Apps can be indexed by the operating system.
Soon, search will be the easiest way to do all things on
your phone. Not just to access apps but to actually
use them.

48. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Yesterday …

49. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Yesterday …

50. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

51. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

52. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

53. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

54. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

55. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Today …

56. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Search As Navigation
Soon, search will be the easiest way to do all things on
your phone. Not just to access apps but to actually
use them.

57. Trend: Context-specific suggestions

58. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Context-specific suggestions
iOS 10 can suggest apps you might like to use based
on your location and the time of day.
When you arrive at the gym, for example, iOS may
suggest your favorite personal-training app to help
you get the most out of your workout.

59. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Siri Suggestions

60. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Siri Suggestions

61. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Siri Suggestions

62. Swarm

63. Trend: Messengers

64. Google Allo

65. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
iMessages vs Dropbox

66. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
iMessages vs Dropbox

67. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
iMessages vs Dropbox

68. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
iMessages vs Dropbox

69. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
iMessages vs Dropbox

70. Trend: Personal Assistants

71. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Voice Input
Still an emerging trend, but a huge one. Voice input
will gain new powers, like the ability to “deep link”
reminders and messages to specific packets of
content inside other apps.

72. Google Now Assistant

73. Google Assistant

74. Google Assistant

75. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Google Assistant

76. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
What does it mean for UX?

77. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
RESPONSIVE DESIGN IS A NICE THING, BUT
WE’RE HEADING WAY BEYOND THAT.
Paul Adams, VP of Product @Intercom

78. „D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
TOWARDS
APPS AS SERVICES.
Paul Adams, VP of Product @Intercom

79. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
What does it mean for UX?
Designing systems not destinations

80. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
What does it mean for UX?
Designing systems not destination a publishing system
as well as a destination

81. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
For most of the stuff you do on your phone every day,
you can expect to see functionality extracted and
repackaged and sprinkled throughout your phone’s
interface.
What does it mean for UX?

82. A publishing system as well as a destination
Notifications
Widgets
Watch
Search / Voice
Suggestions
3D Touch
Instant App
Google Assistant
App

83. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
Content needs to be broken down into atomic units so
that it can work agnostic of the screen size or
technology platform. Containers for content that can
come from any app.
What does it mean for UX?

84. Facebook’s eco-system of objects
App

85. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
The primary design pattern here is cards. Designing
these, and the actions within them, will become an
increasingly important part of product design. We will
need to spend as much of our time on this aspect of
the experience, as on the experiences within the app.
What does it mean for UX?

86. Cards

87. What does it mean for UX?

88. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
What does it mean for businesses?

89. D E A T H O F T H E
H O M E S C R E E N
What does it mean for businesses?
For businesses, it also starts to solve the app discoverability
problem. Rather than relying on App Store promotion,
advertising, or new deep in app linking to get discovered, an
apps content can appear as a card in our stream, particularly
when embedded in a parent card. Indeed there may not be a
child app, the content and actions in that child card may come
from the web.

90. What does it mean for businesses?

91. What does it mean for businesses?

92. D E A T H O F
T H E
H O M E
S C R E E N
As people interact or don’t interact with cards presented to them, the system will learn
when to show more or less from a specific source (app). As content from different apps
will be presented side by side, this changes who you might think you are competing with.
Competition is between products that do the same job, not products that are in the
same category. This is already the case today; when faced with multiple notifications on
a phone screen, they all compete with each other for your attention. Twitter for example,
may be competing much more with entertainment apps e.g. Games and News, than with
other social products.
This intense competition means businesses will have to spend time designing great
notifications/cards, because they will potentially be competing with cards from
Facebook, or Amazon, or Google.
New competitors

93. Alexander Meinhardt
krunchtime.org
KRUNCHTI M E I NTE RACTIVE