Jan-Michael Cart, that's the name of Apple's new addition to its design department. He is a young student at the University of Georgia who for some time has been posting videos on YouTube of how the user interface of the Cupertino operating system could be improved. Apple has taken a look at these videos and has decided that it could include the young Cart on the staff.
One of the videos that have attracted the most attention is the one that refers to the remodeling of the notification center; one of the new features that was included in the Apple equipment that was updated to iOS 5 that was presented together with the iPhone 4S -the latest mobile model-. And with this addition, users can get an idea of where Apple will go in redesigning the user interface of their mobile devices: iPhones, iPads or iPods Touch.
Among the proposals arising from the video presentation, Jan-Michael Cart presents a new way of viewing notifications depending on their category. Ie not only be able to go deleting one by one, but also allows the user to display or hide different categories. Another interesting feature is being able to see at all times how many new notifications are pending to be read and visible at all times from the system status bar. Of course, the client will be able to choose whether he wants the function to be active or not, being able to activate a button from the system settings section.
On the other hand, the widgets that are included in the notification center, for the moment, must be managed from the settings section. Jan-Michael Cart proposes something easier and it is to be able to handle them from the center itself without having to take extra steps that waste time. Finally, incoming calls could also function as one more notification. In this way, the user would not be cut off from the application they are using at the time.
Apple has taken the first step and it has been to find the young student to work together with the company's engineers. Now it remains to be seen if Cart's ideas will be taken into account and the videos he has been showing on YouTube are a preview of what is to come.
