Stellar, File System for Human Interaction
Have you ever struggled to find a photo in your storage but gotten lost in the thousands of files?
Have you ever suffered to open a pdf in your computer but never known where it was?
Have you ever noticed that there is NO reason to spend time browsing for files when you don’t even know
what or where they are?
The file system is built into the computer, however, it should be designed for human interaction.
So we introduce Stellar, a friendly user interface for a human intuition based file system:
No need to spend a single second on confusing system files;
No need to remember the names of each file;
No need to wait for your computer to search for something through the entire storage;
No need to type in cmd or terminal a hypercritical accurate route;
No need to feel down and confused looking at a crowded folder;
No need to remember when the file was opened or modified;
The only thing you need to use Stellar, is exactly the thing you must already have: your purposes.
When you want to find a file, there must be a reason for this search. When you want to create something, you are doing this because you need it. The connection between human user and files in the storage of computer is strong and simple. You either need it with a certain purpose, or you may not even know what it is.
In stellar, we provide just the attributes of files that you need:
The purpose: Why the user needs to open it;
The time: When the user modified it before, and when the user needs it to be done.
Each file in stellar is labeled with attributes given by both the user and the system, together with time. The attributes are grouped in multi-level categories. Files are stored based on their attributes and time when it’s opened. If a user does not need to open a file directly, then the file will not be displayed. Search is allowed, and any system file is detectable, it’s just not shown in the user interface to confuse people.
The user interface is made of these modules:
A wallpaper;
A combination of dynamic triangles at the center of the screen;
A sidebar at the upper-right corner of the screen;
A timeline at the bottom of the screen;
A button for applications at the bottom-left corner;
Wallpaper
The wallpaper can be changed by the user. Stellar uses a photo of universe by default.
Dynamic triangles combination
The dynamic triangle combination represents file categories, which can be defined by the user. Stellar
has four default categories:
Work;
Fun;
Social;
Miscellaneous
These four categories could cover most of regular human needs for files. The shapes of the triangles represent multiple meanings: e.g. the user could choose to see “Things needed to do”, “Recent usage”, or “Total number of files”. The triangle changes automatically while the user is using the computer.
Sidebar
The sidebar can also be set up by user. Default settings are:
Search
Time
Language
Whenever the user wants to search anything, the search bar is always available. For each search, the user can set up filters such as categories, or time period. Other useful functions include but are not limited to: battery, internet, volume.
Timeline
Timeline uses time to display existing events (past) and targets (future) made by the user. Each event is shown as a small point, the color of which represents its category. For example, “red” is work, “green” is social, “yellow” is fun. Different reds mean different categories of work, e.g. darker red is business, lighter is design.
In stellar, there are not only existing files which were created and modified in the past, there are also “Targets” which allow the user to schedule work and set deadlines. To set up a target, the user can simply double-click the timeline where the target should be, pick up categories, and decide attributes. Every point on the timeline is editable: copy, cut, paste, add, remove, move are supported through simple mouse actions.
In the center of the timeline, there is a circle of “Now”, which will go over the entire timeline from past to future as the timeline moves slowly to the left.
When the mouse moves close to a triangle, a circled point at the triangle’s edge will grow larger. At the same time, the timeline will switch to the category of that triangle. Fox example, when the user moves the mouse from Social to Work, the timeline will switch from a social timeline of green points to a work timeline of red points.
If the user clicks on a triangle, the sub-category will be displayed. Both the dynamic triangles combination and the timeline will be changed to that sub-category. In this case, the user goes to the work sub-category, which contains business, research, internship, design, and course work.
When the mouse moves close to a sub-category, an event, or a target, the related points on the timeline will pop up. The most related event will be the highest, and the least related the lowest.
As the timeline moves slowly to the left, the “Now” circle may reach a target point. That point will pop up, and the system will go to the user interface of that target, and prepare required files.
When the user wants to open any file, or start doing any target, just one click on the timeline point and that’s it.
Applications button
Stellar also supports running applications directly. Simply click on the applications button, all applications that are related to the current category will be shown in a pop-up block.
Create, modify, classify, search, all those things a user can do to a file are designed to simple and easy action. Stellar filters out useless features of files by representing them in a user-friendly way. The user could go over the timeline to find anything he has done before. All the things that happen to a certain category will be recorded as events. The user will never get confused while trying to find a photo, as long as he knows what the photo is for. It will also be easy to find a document directly since it’ll appear immediately after the attributes are given. As for disordered folders? You’ll never see them any more.
Have a reason to find a file? That’s the only thing you need! Stellar will do all the rest for you!
