4 ms·

I’ve had this thought for a while that the Desktop UI needs to be reinvented to fit the user in two main ways: - People Centric. Associate files, notes, alerts

by mmackh 6y ago

I’ve had this thought for a while that the Desktop UI needs to be reinvented to fit the user in two main ways: - People Centric. Associate files, notes, alerts, calendar entries, emails, documents with your contacts or contact group. Chat using an open protocol. This is in stark contrast with the data silo approach we have going on now. - Project Based. Want to create a new app? Create a new project. All files associated with a project can live in a container and be shared in other containers. Filter for types of files that you are looking for. This basically reinvents the Finder/Explorer UI to avoid creating complicated hierarchies for the user. I’d argue that this approach to a more people centric UI would be scalable to mobile as well.

jayd16 6y ago
I think the "hide the file browser" has had some pretty mixed results when attempted on mobile. File browsers and file extensions come in handy. For example, the zip/archive workflow. Does it make sense for all archives to live under the zip app? Does it make sense to have to share files to and from a zip app in different bespoke app level UI? If its OS UI how is it really any different than a file browser?
- saagarjha 6y ago
  The mobile platforms seemed to have settled on “services” for this kind of thing. Take content from one app, apply a transformation on, put it in another.
Arainach 6y ago
Network effects are huge. People are on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/etc. because other people are on them. The control over the network is of paramount importance to those companies, and they do not want to give it up. They don't want an open chat protocol. They want their branded experience with their specific font and their specific shade of blue (and it's always blue - Facebook, Twitter, Skype, it doesn't matter, it's always blue). Microsoft tried to build People-centric experiences with the short-lived MyPeople experience: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3216489/windows-10s-my-people-microsoft-makes-it-easy-to-just-wave-hello.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/3216489/windows-10s-my-peopl... In the end, while the UX mocks were grand and there was the potential for some interesting flows, it was impossible to get the platforms interested. They don't WANT your contact list to sync to your device and integrate in your OS surfaces, they want to own that data.

by mmackh 6y ago

jayd16 6y ago

I think the "hide the file browser" has had some pretty mixed results when attempted on mobile. File browsers and file extensions come in handy. For example, the zip/archive workflow. Does it make sense for all archives to live under the zip app? Does it make sense to have to share files to and from a zip app in different bespoke app level UI? If its OS UI how is it really any different than a file browser?

saagarjha 6y ago
The mobile platforms seemed to have settled on “services” for this kind of thing. Take content from one app, apply a transformation on, put it in another.

Arainach 6y ago

Network effects are huge. People are on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/etc. because other people are on them. The control over the network is of paramount importance to those companies, and they do not want to give it up. They don't want an open chat protocol. They want their branded experience with their specific font and their specific shade of blue (and it's always blue - Facebook, Twitter, Skype, it doesn't matter, it's always blue). Microsoft tried to build People-centric experiences with the short-lived MyPeople experience: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3216489/windows-10s-my-people-microsoft-makes-it-easy-to-just-wave-hello.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/3216489/windows-10s-my-peopl... In the end, while the UX mocks were grand and there was the potential for some interesting flows, it was impossible to get the platforms interested. They don't WANT your contact list to sync to your device and integrate in your OS surfaces, they want to own that data.