[e28eta]

Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I expected the example to be just the app's logo. Ie: oh, that's my Dropbox app because instead of the Dropbox UI, I see the big Dropbox logo (Nothing against Dropbox or their app). I also wonder if we'll ever see the app switcher card being used as advertisement space.

A little less cynically: If you can redesign a screen in the app to remove clutter and highlight the important information for the user for the app switcher, why don't you do that in the app? Sounds like it might be a better UI design. Now, I can think of many reasonable counter examples, but I'd challenge you to spend more time on the app UI where your users spend most of their time.

[badman_ting]

The switcher view is a) purely read-only, b) scaled down in size from the normal view. I think it makes sense for info to be presented differently in this case. When you make an icon smaller, you don't just take the existing design and scale it down. You also remove detail you can't afford to try to make the design clearer overall.

[k-mcgrady]

>> "If you can redesign a screen in the app to remove clutter and highlight the important information"

It's not that simple. The problem isn't information density/clutter. When in task switching mode the screen is very small so just being able to make the most important information larger so it's easier to read is useful. Also, there may be buttons on screen that may be important features - but they aren't important in task switch mode as they can't be pressed so removing them and making more room for the content makes sense.

It's like designing for a small screen device and a larger screen device. You can make useful features easier to access on the larger screen due to the extra real estate. That doesn't necessarily mean you're cluttering the UI.