The Tiny Tree Home Screen

Reader Mike E shares his very simple, elegant home screen that even those with unrooted phones can put together.

Mike explains his setup:

I wanted something that looked very simple but had everything there to hand within a couple of presses or swipes. First thing, I wanted to hide the notification bar as I think it looks way better without it (you can do this in LauncherPro). The dock stays the same over all three screens and has shortcuts to my most used apps.

The home screen contains 3 main text buttons for Google Reader, Spotify and JustPictures, a simple battery level display and a touch to lock button. There are 4 hidden folders (made using SiMi Folder Widget) which open custom Apps, Games, Contacts and Camera Apps, all arranged by frequency of use.

The left screen is for settings and work. There are switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data Connection, GPS, Ringer Setting and Volume Settings. The text button opens Wunderlist and the calendar displays one of my Google Calendars set up to sync with my work’s Notes calendar.

The right screen is for personal and has text buttons for Facebook, Gmail and Any.do. The calendar contains all my personal calendars from Google Calendar.

The widgets Mike uses include:

• Switch Pro for quick settings tweaks on the right screen
• Simple Text for the text buttons on all three screens
• Simple Calendar for calendar events on both the leftmost and rightmost screen
• SiMi Clock Widget for the clock in the middle of the home screen
• Minimalistic Text for the battery meter on the top of the home screen
• WidgetLocker for a similarly simple lock screen

The Iconic Home Screen