What does it take to make my front page?

Everyone that has an iPhone eventually needs to figure out how to organize their applications. I struggle with this on a daily basis and am constantly making tweaks based on making my own user experience as awesome as possible.

I have finally reached a point where my tweaking has brought me to a place that I am very happy. Above is a screengrab of my home page. These are the apps that I either use the most or need access to quickly when I’m on the go. I’m sure that’s what pretty much everyone does with their home page.

I should admit as early as possible that I am an app whore. I have at least 200 apps downloaded, many of which I would never use again, but had to try to see which were best for me.

I have 6 pages of apps that I keep on the iPhone, including my home page. Here is my system:

1) Home Page
2) Social Media and Quick Reference
3) Games
4) Geo Utilities
5) Non-Geo Utilities
6) Native Apps that I can’t delete

I have had more pages and more categories, buy I found that I would get confused by which apps fell in which categories and I would argue with myself over which category something really belonged to in the first place.

Why I thought this might make an interesting post is the fact that I recently found two apps that immediately made my front page on downloading: Stanza, and Sleep Cycle.

Stanza, which could easily be classed as a non-geo utility has immediately proven to be one of my favourite apps. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would ever read a whole novel on an iPhone I would have laughed in your fave. After experiencing how easy it is to download new books and read in any amount of light with this app I am amazed. I have read two books in the last 2 weeks.

Sleep Cycle, which is an app that tracks your quality of sleep and also wakes you when your body is more prepared to be woken, is another fast favourite. I need to have this on front page because when I am tired enough to fall asleep I don’t want to have to search for the app to launch it. I may only be able to use it once each day, but the data that comes from it is insightful and interesting so it is definitely worthwhile.

Now my front page is full and for anything to break into that top position I would have to bump one of my favourites. I can’t imagine something new impressing me that much.

What will it take to make my front page going forward?