iOS 5 may have included Twitter integration for the first time, however it wasn’t until iOS 6, when iOS adopted Facebook integration, as well as Twitter integration, that iOS received share widgets for Notification Center.
A new iOS concept by human interface designer Joshua Tucker adds additional buttons to the Share Widget in Notification Center, making it a much more centralized area for handling information. The concept adds more options, in addition to the existing Facebook and Twitter buttons, for sending an SMS/iMessage, creating a Calendar Event, and setting a Reminder for yourself.
Since the concept uses icons instead of text to declare what the buttons are for, the “Tap to Tweet” and “Tap to Post” text strings have disappeared from the interface to make the widget as simple as possible.
Upon tapping any of the new buttons, the Messages share sheet would resemble the Messages application, the Calendar share sheet would resemble the Calendar application, and the Reminders share sheet would resemble the Reminders application – this would be in tune with the way the Facebook and Twitter share sheets resemble the colors of those applications.
The share sheet for the calendar event, for example, would include all of the features you would expect for setting a basic calendar event. You can name it, choose a location, a time frame, and choose an alert. Afterwards, you’ll be able to tap on the done button to save your new calendar event or the cancel button to cancel all input. If you save it, it will show up in the Calendar application as you would expect.
For users that feel certain features of the share widget were more important than others, preferences would be available for users to enable and disable certain buttons on the share widget. This would make it so that the user's Notification Center would not be cluttered by unused buttons. When users enable or disable buttons, the buttons will resize themselves to accommodate for the buttons selected.
The idea behind the concept is not to outright replace the applications they correspond to, but rather to make them more universally accessible. This ability to access it from anywhere helps make scheduling events and reminders, as well as sending messages faster and less obtrusive. Tucker explains that having this quick access to tools makes it easier to be efficient in our daily lives:
Originally Posted by Joshua Tucker:
Based on my own personal experience, having the ability to quickly add something important like a calendar event in a more efficient way helps me to be more organized, responsible, and productive. Based on human nature, I believe it's the same for everyone.
Josh has plans to work with a developer in the jailbreak community to make this concept into an actual jailbreak tweak to be released in Cydia, however he has not yet gotten together with any developers to work on the project. Additional sharing options could be added to the widget when it becomes a reality.Based on my own personal experience, having the ability to quickly add something important like a calendar event in a more efficient way helps me to be more organized, responsible, and productive. Based on human nature, I believe it's the same for everyone.
Sources: Dribbble (1), (2) via Joshua Tucker
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