I Phone Duo
Rethinking the Foldable: Beyond Screen Size to Meaningful Product Design
The foldable has been around for a while, so it's not the fact that Apple is producing one that interests me.
What I'm more curious about is this:
After all those years of foldable phones, have we really worked out what the unfolded phone should do? 👀
Consider the case of simply finding a restaurant.
On the smaller screen, I'm likely swiping quickly: name, rating, distance, done.
Then I unfold.
If the only thing I receive is the same feed but with wider cards and larger photos, then yes, the interface has changed to suit the screen.
Yet, did the experience actually improve?
Imagine that when I unfold the phone, I'm also given a map alongside my results; that way, I can compare different locations, open various menus, scan reviews, and make my decision without constantly switching between screens.
I've given the product more room so that I might carry out the task.
That's the product design opportunity that I find interesting.
Since more space becomes available, our instinct is simply to add more. There's more information, more panels, and more controls.
But maybe the better question is:
What is it that the user can now do better-rather than what else can we show them?
- Other times, it could involve more context.
- In other cases, it might involve an easier comparison.
- Other times, there would be fewer steps.
- At times, it could simply mean doing nothing.
Apple didn't come up with this design challenge; it's been posing it for years.
Yet, with another major company joining the category, I'm wondering if we're finally going to see the fold go beyond a difference in screen size and become part of how the product experience functions.
A larger screen is a hardware feature.
Product designers decide whether to create that additional space.
