[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.