Earlier this year we got a sneak peek at what was supposed to be Samsung’s new UX for the Galaxy S5, courtesy of the now retired @evleaks. Although the Galaxy S5 did manage to bring a fresh coat of paint with a flatter, more minimal version of their now infamous TouchWiz custom Android interface, (blue greens everywhere), the home screen, widgets, and icons were nothing like what we saw in the above leak (and for some, that was a good thing).
But it may not have been the last we’ve seen of this florescent new user interface. Samsung recently filed a software patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (published only a few days ago) for what appears to be this very same UI. Dubbed Iconic UX, this new user experience looks nearly identical to the leaked Android screenshots from earlier this year.
Although the design sketches are in black and white, we can see the same use of these BlinkFeed-like homescreen widgets and even how Samsung allows users to interact with them, tapping and expanding using a 2-finger gestures. It’s drastically different from what we’re currently used to in Samsung smartphones, but too unlike Samsung tablets and their Magazine UX. You can check out some of the design sketches down below.
If this is, in fact, designed for Samsung’s Android devices (and not their own in-house Tizen OS), it’s possible we wont see a drastic user interface change like this until the Samsung Galaxy S6 launches next year. It simply doesn’t make much sense for an OEM to launch yet another entirely new user interface only a few months into the lifecycle of their current flagship, possibly confusing consumers in the process.
No matter what, it will be interesting to see where Samsung takes this, especially considering Google’s new licensing terms for Android OEMs looking to access the Google Play Store and their other suite of applications.
[Patent (PDF Download) | via GalaxyClub.nl]
from Phandroid http://ift.tt/1oZcORr
