The home screen widget: a new way to introduce yourself

Not long ago, a phone's home screen was just a grid of icons lined up out of habit. Today, a photo fills a whole tile, a quote changes every morning, an icon gets redrawn so it doesn't clash with the rest. The home screen has become a space people put together, not just somewhere they pass through to launch an app.

A screen turned into a stage

Choosing which photo fills the big widget, which icon colour pairs with which other one, which corner to leave empty rather than filled: none of these decisions are required, and that is exactly what makes it a personal gesture. Almost nobody actually looks at this screen for more than a few seconds at a time, and yet people can spend far longer arranging it than they ever spend looking at it afterward.

What the layout says

A busy screen, every app visible and sorted by colour, doesn't say the same thing as an almost empty one, stripped down to a clock and a plain background. The first says you like having everything within reach; the second, that you'd rather not be tempted the moment you unlock the phone. Neither is the better choice - each simply reveals a different relationship with a device opened dozens of times a day.

The decor shouldn't get in the tool's way

The risk with all this is losing in comfort what you gain in style: an icon made too subtle becomes hard to find again, a folder hidden behind a nice background eventually gets forgotten. The best home screen is still the one that needs no thought to use - style comes second, laid over something that, first and foremost, has to stay practical.