Built a phone OS that changes to your needs

EverythingMe is an Android Launcher (Home Replacement), with goal to create a new kind of phone - a contextual phone. A phone that changes during the day to adapt the user needs according to context - before the world of Google Now. As a Junior designer, I focused on the UI and UX of new features in the launcher. As time went by I started to focus on the central features of the product.

The Challenge

EverythingMe believed that like people are dynamic, phones should be dynamic and contextual, too. The phone should adapt to our behavior and show the proper content and apps during the day. For example, weather forecast in the morning time, places around me when I’m out and about and Calendar and Todo’s while at work.

That’s why the Android OS was a perfect fit, as it has given us the ability to completely change the OS, and control the experience so it will be exactly as we thought.

UX Wise, the main challenge was to change the user homescreen but reassure that everything is still there and at the same time learning user preferences in a subtle and intelligent way.

EverythingMe Homescreen. We kept the "vanilla" UI (2013) in order to make users feel "at home". Most changes were inside.

Approach

To get the dynamic experience, over time we've created core features.

Features that organized the phone apps automatically, helped to reach wanted content more quickly and, mainly - surface apps and content according to time of day, location, and usage patterns of the user.

Smart folders were created automatically according to the installed apps on the phone. We also included relevant web content in cards.

Prediction Bar

The prediction bar is the “contextual heart” of EvMe. It had a centric android location - above the apps dock, easy to reach by thumb.

Prediction Bar contained 4 apps, surfaced to the user according to context. It also contained the “tap cards” - basically a minimalistic version of our content cards - that provided contextual content from the phone and the web. The user can interact directly with the tap cards, and enter into the context feed.

Prediction Bar and Tap Cards (Prototype)

Context Feed

This was the place where the user got updates about his/her phone and relevant content via cards, based on his/her actions (downloaded an app, taken a picture, etc. ) or other contextual parameters (location, wifi, battery status, etc.). Conceptually speaking - if until now the user had some control over the content he sees - in the context feed all the control was in our contextual engine. This was the true intent of the “Contextual” phone.

The Context Feed

More cards in the Context Feed

The Bigger Story

In EverythingMe - every feature was a mixture of dynamic and static content, from a different angle.

For example, there are several ways to read news: You can have a clear intent and search it via the quick search, or open the news smart folder. Also, you can do nothing, be passive, and get it from the context feed when we guess you want it.

Our plan was to keep collecting data about user behavior, so one day we can say goodbye to “user intent”, and understand their needs only via our contextual engine - so the phone will just know what users want when they want it.

"Android Authority" reports on app shut down in Nov. 2015

The End of Everything

2 years since we launched our product we had 15 million downloads and some great reviews. However, The company, which has been running for 5 years, decided to cease its operation in Oct 2015 due to financial reasons. It was a great run, and also an excellent time to find a new adventure.