Design Decision: The Home Screen

We have made the decision to bring content to the Home Screen. The overall idea is to keep the displayed content light so as to not overwhelm the user while still providing enough immediately userful information. The other main goal of this screen is to invite the user into each individual module.

The "Calendar" button at the top will show calendar and event information in text form. It will not include all of the details of the event but will have cues like "..." to indicate to the user that there is more content to be viewed if they push this button. It is important that the final design of this button not lend itself to the idea that each appointment is viewable from here but that this is simply an up-to-date snapshot of the calendar module.

The "Local View" button in the middle will show a list of (at most) the top three closest friends (determined not only by location but also by the amount of time that has passed from the update) in proximity to the user. The only information given for these friends are their name, their distance from the user, and the timestamp within the last 24 hours (so no date information is necessary). If less than three of the user's friends have updated in the last 24 hours, only those who have will be included here. The background of this button is an image of a map which is not detailed enough to either distract the user or imply that it is functional in any way, but rather suggest that there is location and search functionality waiting behind this button. When the user pushes this button, the map that is displayed as the starting point of local search will be zoomed out enough to include (at least) the three friends that were listed on on this button on the home screen.

The "Profile" button at the bottom includes the user's current location (or "No Location Set" if none is set), the list of groups that can see their location information (ending in "..." if there is not enough space to list them all), and the timestamp of their last location update (empty if no location has ever been set). It is important that whatever text describes the groups here conveys to the user that 1) these are the groups whose members can see their last update and 2) these are the groups who would see their next update. The notion of current and future group visibility are not separate.
The Profile module itself will include the list of "favorite" locations (including the option to set one as the current location), the area to make and edit groups, the area to set which groups can see location information, and all social networking functionality. It should also include an easily visible button to erase (i.e. stop broadcasting) a location and return the system to a "No Location Set" state.

The Big Red Button now reads "Make My Current Location" where the current place is derived from the location->place mapping database described in the last post. Pushing this button will update the user's location and this change will be reflected in the "Profile" button at the bottom of the screen. This provides immediate feedback to the user who is also able to see which groups are able to view their location. Because of this feedback, we no longer need an "OK-Cancel" screen after pushing the Big Red Button.