Desktop Declutter

Inspiration

As students who spend more than 8 hours on their computers everyday, we are all frustrated with our cluttered desktops and the time-consuming task of manual organization. We personally struggle to maintain a tidy digital workspace.

We propose Desktop Declutter as a virtual companion, seamlessly integrated into the current MacOS interface to smartly help clear up and organise our desktop space. Existing solution is manual, but our solution gives smart recommendations for clearing our digital workspace!

What it does

Users can right click on the Desktop to open up the macOS dropdown menu and select Declutter to open up a notification window that recommends an action. The actions include: Delete unused files, delete duplicate files, regroup files into existing folder and regroup files into a new folder. The user can choose to either Preview this action, which will reflect on the Desktop via animation and highlighting of the files concerned, or View Files to see more details about which files are suggested for deletion or regroup. The user can also choose to ignore a recommendation and choose to regenerate another.

How we built it

We sketched out lo-fi protoypes on whiteboards and used Figma for the hi-fi prototypes.

Challenges we ran into

We want this solution to apply to not only Desktops but also existing directories in the future. Because of this, we designed both View Files and Preview functions, the latter being more visual and more suitable for Desktop Declutter, while View Files are suitable for both Desktop and a single Directory Decluttering, since preview may be less important for Directories.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

For coming up with an idea inspired by our own pain points, designing using specifically the macOS system and covering different edge cases.

What we learned

Designing a solution for macOS has lots of specificities. We learned more about the Apple design system, and were in awe of the details that were paid into the visualisation/icons of different types of documents, as we recreated a messy Desktop from scratch.

We wanted to design something that both seamlessly blends into current macOS design and clearly indicate to users which action is being performed. For example, in Preview mode, when an item is recommended to be deleted, it shakes and everything else on the desktop dims to highlight the important files. When an item is recommended to be reorganised, a new folder would be created and highlighted to tell users quickly what action is going to happen.

What's next for Desktop Declutter

Currently, our solution is for individual use. We discussed at length how local file reorganisation is a pain point for many users in larger organisations, and how file structures may be shared between users for better organisation and foster collaboration. We designed something that we would want to have in our daily lives, and we want to help others have their clean desktop, clear mind!

Built With

• figma