[afterglow]

For anyone ever frustrated by the Finder, I've posted an article on my site and on www.CreativeBits.org detailing a few thoughts on a new version of the file management GUI. For the sake of convenience I've posted it below as well.It must be mockup season as there's been a concept of a revised Spotlight UI posted online as well.


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In the past few years , OS X has given Apple a second whirlwind romance with public opinion. It's software, UI effects and "just works" mojo have caused a great ripple of curiosity through previously skeptical PC users.
While the rest of the computing experience on the Mac has jumped forward the file manager used by nearly every single Mac user has puffed along by comparison.

Comparing the Finder of an old Performa chugging away on 0S 7 and Tiger's sleek GUI, the actual functions and implementation haven't changed hugely. So after using the Finder for a decade for media and graphic work, I've come to certain conclusions .

• The Desktop and Finder are two sides of the same file management coin. The best way of getting people into the bad habit of dumping files into an unrelated area. The desktop is just a folder that obscures everything else.
  
  
• The majority of time is spent navigating for folders, opening files and viewing location info.
  
  
• My desktop picture never gets seen as it's covered with multiple overlapping windows during the normal multitasking day.
  
  
• I go to the Finder as an interruption to my workflow, not part of it. Dipping in to find a file, switching between windows, scanning through columns, expanding the window, scrolling horizontally, etc.
  
  
• Expose and Dashboard give an indication of how you can execute file and system functions in a single layer.
  
  
• I grew out of metal (brushed or otherwise) when Faith No More split up.
  

As an excercise in thinking through Photoshop one day. I mocked up what I would think would help someone in dealing with their information dump all day. This is one step behind vaporware as it currently exists in only in a Quicktime Movie and PDF. But that never stopped any PR department.

So Desk was born ...


Option 1: Click for full screen image

Option 2: 3.1mb Quicktime Movie of "Desk" in action or 1.2mb PDF of the process

Desk - The Offspring of Finder and Desktop
So what we now have is a single pane which incorporates the Desktop, Finder in one layer and acommodates the Dock. Yes it's one of those single window Finder concepts. (The horror, the horror) The Dock gets it's own background colour preference for consistent viewing no matter what program is floating behind it.

Clicking on the "Desktop" or Desk Icon in the Dock bring Desk to the foreground as well as expanding the menubar downwards. When another program is in the foreground the Desk can dim in the same manner as Expose and Dashboard dim the background.(It could dim to a picture for those unwilling to give up their attachment to desktop pictures)

The blue "Function Bar" on the right hand side contains context sensitive functions that would change according to whether the selected item was a folder, image, mp3 etc. In terms of scrolling the scroll bars would appear on the left of the Function Bar so it is always visible regardless of how deep in the folder structure you are.


One Click and the Desktop Picture fades away

The Sidebar stays in static position on the far left of the screen. In addition to the normal sidebar file and folder shortcuts, there are three extra icons , Projects, Recent Searches and Clipboard


Projects - A New Concept...Almost
Most people using their Mac for business will have numerous pieces of data in emails, photoshop documents, word files etc that are related to each other.
A smart folder can do most of the legwork in gathering this info. Inching this concept forward just a tad, an Assign to Project Folder action would create an alias like a Smart Folder and automatically add the Project name to the Spotlight comments field.
Opening up a project folder would list the resources associated with the Project such as number of files, contacts and emails.

Recent Searches
Desk could contain the five most recent Spotlight searches. The same reasoning why Safari retains it's recent Google searches.

Clipboard
Since the Desk would not spawn any new windows like the current Finder, this Clipboard folder would show items currently in memory. This could also be used as a shelf to store items before moving them on. People will initially balk at having only one layer to work with but consider why you usually have multiple finder windows open. For me I am dragging folders, copying...all work that could be made easier if I could place files to one side and then move to my destination at a time of my own choosing. Pathfinder, a Finder alternative already uses this concept of a Shelf.

So here were my aims for this were:

• Combine the Finder and Desktop into one hybrid pane of information.
  
  
• Make the conventions roughly similar to the present Finder.
  
  
• Keep options and functions out of the way until they would naturally be needed.
  
  
• Find a natural way to organise Projects.
  
  
• Make it light and easy to look at while banishing as much scrolling as possible. Take back screen real estate, especially for laptop users.
  
  
• Be easily navigable by keyboard and numeric keypad. The numbered functions make executing a function a case of looking at the list.
  
  
• Have the flow of Data be from left to right Location > Information > Function.
  
  
• Incorporate an area where files and folders can be placed temporarily until they are moved to a location. (Shelf/Visible Clipboard, etc).
  
  
• Have the Directory Structure visible at the top of the pane at all times.
  
  
• Be available at a keystroke similar to Expose and Dashboard. Show Desktop in Expose would, in practical terms, launch Desk

In my teenage years, I once spent 12 hours trying to rotate a virtual turtle in BASIC. My programming career began and died the same day on that Amstrad. My Photoshop and mockup skills are a bit better so that's the way this virtual app currently works. As mentioned before this is one step behind Vaporware but no one has overpromised and underdelivered yet.

Simply food for thought and I'd love to hear other thoughts on what would make the Finder..found.


Cian Walsh is an Icon and Interface Designer who has a Finder voodoo doll to keep it in line.

[G0Ducks]

wow... This seems really nice to me. Just as long as it it accommodatingly themeable. No... Really.

R

[rhythmicmoose]

You could elaborate a bit on the Clipboard idea. Moving an item to the Clipboard and then dragging it out to it's new location poses an extra step that makes it no more useful than two separate windows. Perhaps have that arrow next to it bring up a floating list of the Clipboard's contents, which can then be dropped onto the new location either by clicking (this would drop the file to the active directory) or by dragging (for the spring-loaded folders lovers).

This reads a lot like an application for an engineering program I turned in a couple summers ago, and I'm glad to see that other people are thinking about the same thing. My application was in terms of computing in general, but I really like how you've applied the ideas to OS X in particular. I especially like your "Projects" idea. It's exactly identical to one point I highlighted in the app, right down to the use of a system search function and file proxies/aliases, except I called them "Binders." I still like mine better.

[afterglow]

The drop down arrow in the clipboard menu is for showing the contents while navigating in another folder. Probably should have included a screen of that in the quicktime.

[MetalSnake]

How would I drag and drop files/folders in a single window system?
How would I drag and drop a file from the finder into a window of an open app?
etc.

Nice idea, but not useable in my opinion.

[afterglow]

Originally Posted by MetalSnake

How would I drag and drop files/folders in a single window system?
How would I drag and drop a file from the finder into a window of an open app?
etc.

Nice idea, but not useable in my opinion.

Some fair points...

Drag and drop (column, icon view) can be used in pretty much it's same incarnation with this method. Only dragging and dropping between multiple windows would be achieved using the clipboard. A large portion of users with multiple windows open them just for this operation.

The path trail at the top of the window could also be used in the same manner as a spring loaded folder to drag and drop in nested folders.

Have a fullscreen finder wouldn't stop dragging a file on top of an app window or dock icon.I've got the finder as large on my screen as it will go and doesn't present any problems in that regard.

[neo_2510]

I was watching the movie and the first thought was - this is like windows! The blue bar on the right and the whole look.
Sorry for that, but I think there are some interesting points to simplify the Finder. Keep up the work and maybe rethink the design a bit...

[rhythmicmoose]

Originally Posted by afterglow

Have a fullscreen finder wouldn't stop dragging a file on top of an app window or dock icon.I've got the finder as large on my screen as it will go and doesn't present any problems in that regard.

Making the Dock a bit more useful could ease drag operations between two apps. If a dragged file is hovered over an open application in the Dock, that app's windows could pop forward, Exposé-style. The user could then drop the file into the application, or hover over the Desk icon again to return to file system operations.

It's an extra step over the existing windows-all-of-the-place system, but it would streamline the interface and would act logically.

[livemotion]

I like the look of it...

...however it looks too windows-stategy-like. I like viewing a semi empty desktop and browsing through the finder folders. Sometimes less and simple is better and I think that's been Apple's startegy.

[Macanoid]

very nice but I'd rather wait for this which is about to be released shortly, a finder with tabs and bookmarks:




more info here :: pathfinder 4

[kilechki]

Nice work... Wit some good ideas, although I can't see how a single window browser could deal with all the needs of a, well, file browser. What you describe is maybe more a projet manager - and a good one! - rather than a file browser. Now, that is one of the problem that every OS maker now has to face : the versality of uses of the a browser brings more complexity to the UI while making it more difficult to base the browser on consistent and accessible principles. MS has decided to have Windows "guess" what the user wants to do and implement as many features as possible in its browser, while Apple seems to try to push the user in using dedicated tools to organize its data, and to use the finder only for simple tasks.

That sounds not very innovative from Apple, and too many people just find the Finder weak, by now. Its principle is not so easy to understand : the differenciation between "Desktop" and "Finder" in OS X beta days made much more sense than the actual situation where you have to explain to (not so)new users that they have to click on "finder" to get to the desktop - eventually.
With Tiger, this has worsened with the weird implementation of spotlight, both in the Finder and as an ubiquitous, although invisible app.

In this regard, I think you go in the right direction in merging Spotlight and the Finder, plus "content sensitive" abilities. However, I would like to see more spotlight-associated features in your UI, such as the ability to assign a genre and a rating to my files, depending on their types. I should be able to add keywords and information in a much more user friendly way than in the current Finder!

I like the idea, however, that Apple will slowly implement Spotlight as a replacement to the finder, by stretching it as a center of the "hub". There was once a "digital hub" strategy which was centered around the mac ; I would not be surprised to see a Finder replacement be a centralized storing facility, giving much better access to all data on my computer - including emails, calendars, all needed content organized by group.
Hopefully is Tiger only a beginning in this regard.