Brye-kun, great work!
I agree with your stance that the lock screen is now “off”. The addition of instant access to camera is definitely welcome, but like you, I think it was done almost as an afterthought and lacks the polish that we’ve come to expect from Apple.
That said, and because of how usually nitpicky Apple is about this stuff, I’ll be also. Before, if I wanted to access the home screen from sleep mode, the steps are:
- Press power button to wake
- Press and slide to unlock
- Enter security code (4 buttons) to enter home screen
That’s a total of 6 motions to reach home screen (I envy Android’s lock screen, btw, for its one motion unlock), without any HOLD motion. Your solution introduces a HOLD motion between #1 and #2, which would be just slightly bothersome. Unless you meant it to be instantaneous at the “press and hold” stage. So, a tweak: press and SLIDE immediately to the left for camera, to the right to unlock, without the HOLD motion. Users will learn it quickly enough.
Still, I’d like to tackle this “problem” and as such, I have two alternative solutions to this…
First solution:
Press and slide “unlock” button from left to right–> LET GO to bring up security code screen–OR–SLIDE back to the left in SAME MOTION to access camera. The way the screen will appear is this: when the unlock button slides all the way to the right, the camera icon appears on the left of the bar, indicating the user to slide back to the left to access camera. Even the phrase “slide left for camera” can appear across the bar now. This will clean up any visual clutter because you’ll not need the camera icon to show up when you leave sleep mode AND you’ll get to keep the classic “slide to unlock” screen untouched (I prefer your new bar design though).
Second solution:
The button is at the CENTER of the bar. The button is silver and icon-less and the bar is faint and empty. As soon as the button is touched, “lock” and “camera” icons quickly fade in at either end of the bar. Slide left to unlock. Slide right for camera. Three benefits: One, the button is now dead center, making almost the entire screen symmetrical; two, the screen is cleaner than before with less icons; three, the slide motion is shorter, making it more convenient/quicker to access the home screen, because you now basically only need to slide across half the distance. Yes, it seems minuscule in importance, but fraction of a second delay can easily be detected by today’s users. #firstworldproblem