

Journaling: a better UI metaphor than files/folders/desktops? - yummyfajitas
http://www.gnome.org/~federico/docs/2008-GUADEC/html/index.html

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greyman
I quite successfully adopted an aproach from GTD methodology. The main pillars
are three different folders:

1) INBOX - unprocessed input, usually files downloaded from the web or saved
attachments.

2) PROJECTS - here, I create subfolders, one subfolder for one Project. In the
subfolders, there are files I actively work on, like doc files.

3) REFERENCES - here, I store files I am not working on, like ebooks, texts,
photos, etc.

So, in the slide example, I would not lost the file location, since I know it
will be in the folder Projects\Write-Essay-On-Teaching. If the project is
finished, I remove the directory (and put final output into Refenrences, if
necessary).

I realized, at least in my case, that the main problem causing mess on the HDD
was related to the fact, that unprocessed, working-on and reference files were
stored together by topics.

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omouse
The OLPC features something similar to this:

<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Journal>

<http://laptop.org/en/laptop/start/journal.shtml>

You know, for all the trash talk about the OLPC and it's lack of a regular
GUI, it sure does have a few innovative ideas in there that we could learn
from.

~~~
unalone
How much trash talk is there regarding the OLPC itself? All the criticism I've
heard is for the company designing it, not for the computers themselves.

~~~
omouse
There's always at least one person that will say, "give them food or water
instead", and another saying, "how will this prepare them for the future? the
OLPC's GUI is nothing like Windows, Mac or Linux. How can they get a job
working with computers??"

Maybe that isn't a lot of trash talk, but it quickly gets annoying and old.

~~~
unalone
The first comment: makes a little sense, I think. The second one: bleh.
Theoretically, working with the Mac didn't give you experience with the
iPhone. Two radically different interfaces, even with Leopard multitouch. It's
the CONCEPT of computing that needs to be taught, not the INTERFACE.

If you see those critics anywhere, slap 'em for me or something.

------
josch
Cf. <http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html>

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cpr
Maybe, but the Lifestreams people are suing anyone who doesn't pony up for
their patents. (E.g., Apple for Time Machine, which is a real stretch.)

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
Hopefully software patents will be emasculated and stop being a 'big stick'
for companies like that to carry around.

------
rozim
Give the user multiple ways of accessing information, not just one.

Remember this acronym: LATCH

Location / Alphabetical / Time / Category ("tag"?) / Hierarchy.

[http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=130881&s...](http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=130881&seqNum=6)

It's a good mnemonic for GUI design - get a GUI up then consider LATCH and add
another path or view of the info.

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defunkt
I love how these slides clearly demonstrate the difference between UI and
graphic design: the examples are bare bones yet highly functional.

~~~
unalone
As a counterpoint: wouldn't they have been more functional if they'd been put
on one page? And if the examples had been sized a bit smaller so I didn't have
to scroll just to see the comments?

------
unalone
That was terrible presentation. That would have worked much better as a
document than as a slide.

Aesthetic criticism aside, isn't this something that some OSes already have?
Mac OS X lets you see all the files you edited yesterday, for instance.
Doesn't that negate the need for a journal, or is there something I'm missing?

~~~
orib
It was prepared for an in-person talk at GUADEC (a Gnome conference).
Documents don't work very well for presentations.

~~~
unalone
They could scroll down really, really fast... :-P

Couldn't they have used Present, or whatever that OpenOffice thing is?

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cosmok
I like the concept and it makes a lot of sense as I open a lot of different
file, browse a lot of different sites and do not always remember the name.

I created a bookmark app (very raw), that orders my bookmarks based on the
time they were save and it is tremendously useful.(the url for the bookmarker
is public and is <http://www.trk7.com/install/xxx.php> (click on the calendar
tab), just in case u want to check)

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gm
Very interesting... Except I suck at remembering dates.

It would be a cool addition to the directory structure, not a replacement.

~~~
yummyfajitas
You can probably remember yesterday, 2 days ago and last weekend. I suspect
those dates encompass 80% of the use cases for such a tool.

~~~
gm
Well, you're gonna laugh, but... I usually don't know what day of the week it
is. I stopped observing weekends a long time ago, so everything's kinda lost
in time.

Besides, with the things I do, I have to keep careful records for a long time,
and be able to find anything really quick. Right now I organize things by
theme (project, topic, etc...). An alternate organization scheme that does not
get in the way would be cool.

For me organizing anything by exact date is overkill. I need to be able to
organize by day, month, week, or year (all at the same time).

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ComputerGuru
God, someone needs a better UI metaphor than those hideous slides!

