Following this previous post describing a possible way to call or text your favorite contacts on an iPhone, I did an animation of how it could behave.
To keep things clear, I didn't add the symbol of a finger touching the screen, so here is a transcript of the actions involved :
After unlocking the phone, flip it to launch the favorite icons screen.
If you have more than a screen worth of contacts, tap the arrows on the side of the screen to navigate them
Tap and stay on an icon to reveal the call/sms display. Moving up and release will launch a call, moving down and release will start a sms. Release in the middle neutral zone brings back all the contacts.
I'm very thankfull to Kontra from Counternotions.com who provided me with some good advices to get the interface where it's at. He gets all the credit for the move up/down to call/sms gesture, which is much easier and elegant than the one I had thought of at first.