This morning I had breakfast with a successful young businessman who a few years ago graduated from Yale. Suffice it to say, a very smart guy.
While he went to pick up some food, I noticed his brand new iPhone 5S. I have not spent much time with the phone so I figured I had a few minutes to check it out. As soon as I brought up the home page I stopped exploring the phone. This man's phone was organized so differently from my iPhone that I started thinking about why it was organized so differently. His phone had many, many different collections of apps organized into boxes labelled "productivity", "business", etc. and did not even use the second home page for apps. Each box had about ten individual apps inside. When he returned with his food, I asked him why he organized his apps the way he did. He first answered that he did not like to flip through pages to find apps, but that could not be the real answer because we all flip pages constantly on our iPhones. I suggested to him that the way he thinks is using frameworks. He fits new ideas into existing frameworks. The "productivity" box was a framework. Framework thinkers excel at analysis and deductive thinking.
My iPhone uses multiple home pages and almost no boxes to collect related apps. That form of organization suggests to me that I am more of a pattern recognition thinker (individual icons match to the app) and not passionate about a subject, such as music. Pattern recognition normally suggests more creativity and inductive thinking. I must be the exception that proves the rule.
One of the smartest people I know has an iPhone home page that is almost evenly balanced between boxes of apps and individual apps. The boxes all have many apps inside. She excels at problem solving and operations.
Three data points do not establish a valid theory. More research is required to prove me correct about home page organization reflecting thinking styles or strengths. However, the next time you interview a new hire candidate, perhaps you should ask to see their phone. Note: A mix of boxes and individual apps on the home page, but where the boxes have few apps inside, probably suggests a lower quality thinker. Only one box filled with many, many apps probably signals a person's passion, which may or may not be consistent with job requirements.
Comments about how you organize your phone home page and what kind of thinker you are can be posted below.