Dear HTC Sense team

[Trust]

Some changes I'd like to see to Sense UI (who knows, maybe an actual Sense developer may read this and go "hmm he has a point". Afterall, Alot of features that came to the iPhone were from the Jailbreak community.

1. Let us choose how many home screens we want. I barely use three, let alone seven.

2. What is with the + button on the dock? How many times a day do we need to add widget,shortcut,application that you decided that would be the 3rd button? Couldn't you have picked something like "open notifications" or "currently running apps/close app".

3. Where is the Gmail widget? Why do we have to add our Gmail accounts as a MS exchange account to be able to view e-mails in a widget?

4. Your news Widget? either we pick all feeds or 1 feed? how about letting us choose? I want 1 widget for tech news and another for normal news...

5. How about a Free Ram (memory free) widget? who needs the Dice, coin flip or tip calculator widget that bad?

6. Can we get a 5th row of icons like other launchers? With that big oversized 1970's flip clock taking up 2X4 rows its hard to squeeze anything else in without using apps organizer.

7. How about an option to uninstall HTC specific apps like Footprints, Peep, Stocks, etc? The idea that I had to root and remove those from the ROM just to get them off the phone are absurd. (You know Microsoft has a section just to remove Windows addons right?)

To Be Continued...

 

[igotsanevo4g]

Sense is pretty solid, but uhm how bout nixing the 30 fps cap, that will help sense imo because the launcher will be faster and more responsive. Hehe.

 

[bjb_nyj101]

2. I use the plus button all the time. And with the new version of Sense, it adds even more functionality.

6. You can easily remove the Clock widget...

 

[kinster02]

New version of sense is already in the works let just hope they put it out to the current phones.

HTC's New Sense Experience - Engadget Galleries

 

[SanGo]

I'm actually pretty sure the plus button is gonna becom the Scenes button in the new version of Sense on the Desire Z and HD

 

[jfultz14976]

Let's fix the Bluetooth stack so we can use a PS3 controller or a Wii Remote!

 

[dwhitman]

I'm actually pretty sure the plus button is gonna becom the Scenes button in the new version of Sense on the Desire Z and HD

Oh, man, I hope this isn't true. That's taking the button from something I rarely use to something I never use.

Am I the only one that thinks the whole idea of Scenes is a mistake? It's like the menus in older versions of MS Office that added or subtracted options based on what you used recently. UI consistency is critical to usability. If the UI changes, you end up wasting time looking for stuff that either isn't there or has moved.

 

[Bujin#IM]

Am I the only one that thinks the whole idea of Scenes is a mistake? It's like the menus in older versions of MS Office that added or subtracted options based on what you used recently. UI consistency is critical to usability. If the UI changes, you end up wasting time looking for stuff that either isn't there or has moved.

I think the concept is interesting, but I'm not sure people compartmentalize their work vs home lives these days. I couldn't imagine having different Scenes.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I've never used the scenes feature but I wouldn't mind the + button being able to be customized.

 

[Mdorty]

Oh, man, I hope this isn't true. That's taking the button from something I rarely use to something I never use.

Am I the only one that thinks the whole idea of Scenes is a mistake? It's like the menus in older versions of MS Office that added or subtracted options based on what you used recently. UI consistency is critical to usability. If the UI changes, you end up wasting time looking for stuff that either isn't there or has moved.

I think the concept is interesting, but I'm not sure people compartmentalize their work vs home lives these days. I couldn't imagine having different Scenes.

I completely agree...although it's a "cool" idea, I doubt many people use it very often. The only time I ever used it was to pull up a "clean slate" before I replaced the Sense launcher with LauncherPro

 

[skife]

Oh, man, I hope this isn't true. That's taking the button from something I rarely use to something I never use.

Am I the only one that thinks the whole idea of Scenes is a mistake? It's like the menus in older versions of MS Office that added or subtracted options based on what you used recently. UI consistency is critical to usability. If the UI changes, you end up wasting time looking for stuff that either isn't there or has moved.

this is going to make my job alot harder.

 

[capnhowdy18]

Actually judging by the screenshots its the personalization button. It looks to bring up a menu where you can add widgets/apps, change ringtones, scenes and the like.

Still a waste of an on-screen button to me. I'd much rather be able to customize it, or at least be something I use more then once every other week.

 

[Trust]

2. I use the plus button all the time. And with the new version of Sense, it adds even more functionality.

6. You can easily remove the Clock widget...

I guess everyone is different. Long pressing the home screen does the same exact thing as pushing the + button so I see that button as a waste of real estate for that dock bar and once I have all the shortcuts and widgets set up I don't go back to that function often.

secondly, I have a 4X2 Sense like clock on my Launcher pro home screen AND an additional row of icons. It could have been done but HTC chose not to add that 5th row.

 

[Trust]

Actually judging by the screenshots its the personalization button. It looks to bring up a menu where you can add widgets/apps, change ringtones, scenes and the like.

Still a waste of an on-screen button to me. I'd much rather be able to customize it, or at least be something I use more then once every other week.

Completely agree with you. Once you add your all widgets and shortcuts to the home screen the way you want it why would you both going back to that button other than to add new widgets/shortcuts which can be done by long pressing the homescreen? Scenes? really? I have yet to use the Scenes function other than to save my layout once in case it gets reset. Ringtones? Meh, I dont change it enough to have quick access to it (still using oldphone as my ringtone).

 

[Darth Mo]

Oh, man, I hope this isn't true. That's taking the button from something I rarely use to something I never use.

Am I the only one that thinks the whole idea of Scenes is a mistake? It's like the menus in older versions of MS Office that added or subtracted options based on what you used recently. UI consistency is critical to usability. If the UI changes, you end up wasting time looking for stuff that either isn't there or has moved.

I think the idea behind scenes is that you can configure your home screens to be most convenient during a given time of the day. I think this is part of the reason the app drawer can't be organized: they're expecting you to use your home screens for everything and rarely need to access the app drawer.

For example, while at work you'll have home screens set up with widgets for news, weather, work email, work memos, work calendar, work contacts, and shortcuts for business/productivity apps, etc.

Then, after work, you can swap to a scene where the home screens have widgets for social networking, sports scores, text messages, personal email, music player, and shortcuts entertainment/playetc.

In those scenarios, scenes sort of make sense (no pun intended).

 

[Bujin#IM]

For example, while at work you'll have home screens set up with widgets for news, weather, work email, work memos, work calendar, work contacts, and shortcuts for business/productivity apps, etc.

Then, after work, you can swap to a scene where the home screens have widgets for social networking, sports scores, text messages, personal email, music player, and shortcuts entertainment/playetc.

Yes, but I think today's workplace requires people to access their work email / calendar / etc outside of office hours, and folks get texts during the work day. For better or worse, work and out-of-work time has become much less distinct.

 

[Trust]

I think the idea behind scenes is that you can configure your home screens to be most convenient during a given time of the day. I think this is part of the reason the app drawer can't be organized: they're expecting you to use your home screens for everything and rarely need to access the app drawer.

For example, while at work you'll have home screens set up with widgets for news, weather, work email, work memos, work calendar, work contacts, and shortcuts for business/productivity apps, etc.

Then, after work, you can swap to a scene where the home screens have widgets for social networking, sports scores, text messages, personal email, music player, and shortcuts entertainment/playetc.

In those scenarios, scenes sort of make sense (no pun intended).

The idea is counter intuitive. I barely got used to where my icons are on the home screens let alone have them shift around on me throughout the day. If it forced me to do this guess what? I'd have 2 identical scenes lol.

 

[DesertSilver#AC]

I use the plus icon all the time. I have a folder for my Apps and Games on the main home screen and use the plus icon to add stuff into those folders as soon as I install the apps.

One developer, HTC in this case, can't make everything work for everyone. But the beauty of Android is that we can (usually) find a way to make things look/function how we like...unlike an Iphone.

 

[Trust]

I use the plus icon all the time. I have a folder for my Apps and Games on the main home screen and use the plus icon to add stuff into those folders as soon as I install the apps.

One developer, HTC in this case, can't make everything work for everyone. But the beauty of Android is that we can (usually) find a way to make things look/function how we like...unlike an Iphone.

Don't get me started on Folder(s):

1. You cannot change the icon of the folder with Sense UI
2. If you execute an icon inside the folder the folder stays open aftewards (you end up getting into the habit of pressing the back button to close the folder).
3. You cannot drag/drop and rearrange the order of icons in the folder.

All this I solved with Apps Folder app from the market.

Every other launcher on the market gets you into the habit of long pressing the home screen to add a app,widget,shortcut,folder. Sense is the only one I've seen that has actually dedicated a button to it.

 

[DesertSilver#AC]

Don't get me started on Folder(s):

1. You cannot change the icon of the folder with Sense UI
2. If you execute an icon inside the folder the folder stays open aftewards (you end up getting into the habit of pressing the back button to close the folder).
3. You cannot drag/drop and rearrange the order of icons in the folder.

All this I solved with Apps Folder app from the market.

Every other launcher on the market gets you into the habit of long pressing the home screen to add a app,widget,shortcut,folder. Sense is the only one I've seen that has actually dedicated a button to it.

You have valid points and I agree with most of them, but what I'm getting at is that there's many options that we have for launchers (Sense, LauncherPro, etc) but none of them are going to work perfectly in the eyes of every user.

Also, something I just noticed (because I personally use the plus icon, rather than long pressing) is that you CANNOT long press within a folder. So maybe this was just one of the reasons they have it there, although I realize they could have just coded to allow long press within folders.