Steal This Idea: Lock Screen Emergency Contact

You, like many people, have a lock on your phone.

This is smart: by requiring the user to type in a code or swipe a pattern in order to access the part of the phone that stores sensitive data, you make it difficult for people to try to pilfer your stuff should you lose your phone.

But for the most part, the world is filled with honest people. So say you lose your phone. Now what? Chances are, an honest person is going to find it and try to get it back to it’s owner.

But you have a lock on it. What is that honest person supposed to do? He can’t scroll through your contacts to try and find a friend or relative to get your phone back to you.

Why not have an icon on the lock screen that a user can assign a “lost phone number” to. An icon that, when pressed, will call your home phone, or your office line, or your buddy’s number, or whatever you choose. On the iphone, there’s already the “Emergency Call” call button that will let you place a call without the code. All you need is one more little icon.