Re: [Usability] Desktop Clutter

[Jacob Beauregard <jake13jake comcast net>]

Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Jacob Beauregard wrote:
>
>   
> > Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:57:08 -0400
> > From: Jacob Beauregard <jake13jake comcast net>
> > To: usability gnome org
> > Subject: [Usability] Desktop Clutter
> >
> > Why does the desktop get so easily cluttered?
> >     
>
> I'll assume you do not have $HOME set as your Desktop.
>
>   
Correct, I have $HOME/Desktop as my desktop

I also have as subdirectories of my home folder: Music, Documents, 
Pictures, and Videos.
In addition to that I have a lot of disorganized miscellaneous things, 
mostly source code and networking.

I think Eclipse (which I'd love if it weren't slow as hell) 
automatically uses home/workspace for things.

Although... you know... filters... that is the most awesome idea I have 
ever heard to solve this problem. Definitely a much better idea than 
annoyingly asking users whether or not they actually want to keep a file.

Not necessarily a filter for downloads, but what about a desktop filter 
system? Or even a new panel applet that you can drag and drop files 
onto, or apply to a folder.

Ex. I prefix all of my files for a class, cs204, with cs204, just for 
organizational purposes. Then I could have a filter that, when applied, 
moves files prefixed with cs204 to ~/Documents/CS204/.

Could also use file extension. Know anyone who might be interested in 
working on a desktop filter?

As for using the desktop as a middle ground for dragging + dropping 
files. A nice way of doing this would probably be to offer a split view 
mode for Nautilus.

Filenames definitely need a sane max characters shown limit.
> > 1. default download space (for firefox)
> >     
>
> I usually set up a default folder such as Downloads or Documents but
> frankly I've long wished I could automatically filter and file my incoming
> downloads as easily as I could filter my email.
>
>   
> > 2. fastest way to create an pre-named document (right-click menu)
> >     
>
> I tend to be more tasked based and rarely create named documents in that
> way and do not right click very often either so I'd be surprised if this
> was a big factor for most people.  (Even when using the terminal I'm more
> likely to pipe some output to a file than to name and create it first
> before doing something with it.)
>
>   
> > 3. middle ground for moving files around
> >     
>
> This is a very good point and a problem we could probably do quite a few
> things to address.
>
> Previously people have discussed various tools from other systems which
> resembled a shelf or a drawer and made it simpler to drag and drop files
> from place to place.  Similarly improving the Send to menu could help
> users move files around but it would be preferable to find ways to keep
> things organised rather than tidy them up after the fact.
>
> I vaguely recall Microsoft providing users with a tool to clear
> infrequently used items from the desktop.  I think I've seen tools for
> tidying and file management which do things like clear out zero size files
> or group files in various ways which help users to then file them away
> someplace a little more organised, but again these tools help clear the
> mess after the fact.  (I bet a few minutes on Sourceforge or Freshmeat
> could turn up quite a few good little utilities.)
>
> In the past I've suggested creating more default folders in Documents for
> major file types such as Music, Pictures, Spreadsheets, etc. and this is
> what I do myself.  You could take that further and have many subfolders to
> organise things but not everyone is going to spend all that much time
> sorting or organising things in that way which is why I'm optimistic a
> combination of a little bit of organisation and then an overlay of tags
> and a high level search system will really help out most users. (One
> might think a well tagged search space wouldn't need much organising but
> if a little extra effort is made to organising it potentially makes a
> search for something such as "all spreadsheets" significantly more
> efficient.)
>
> Lots of potential here, file management is still preoccupies many of us
> ... and I didn't even mention more radical non-desktop ideas like how OLPC
> uses a journal type system to organise things in an entirely different
> way.
>
>