Alan Horkan wrote: > On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Jacob Beauregard wrote: > > >> Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:57:08 -0400 >> From: Jacob Beauregard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: [email protected] >> 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. > > _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
