Simplr

Simplr was my thesis, my aim was to rethink the common pain-point of having too many files. Simplr is a concept for a new interactive spatial-interface paradigm that organizes for the user.

The Problem

Too many files to organize well in folders, hierarchically, as modern native tech users consume, create and download files everyday… Let alone, try to find the thing a year later.

Stemming from interviews and research on the pain points of desktop computing, I selected file systems & organization as the area to explore new metaphors for navigating all of our digital stuff.

The Concept

Enter Simplr, a smart new file explorer, that would organize your files for you, arranging files and information according to contextual metadata and preferences set by the user. Files are accessed with an intuitive zooming interface and a mental model based on natural spatial mapping, as well as a fuzzy logic search.

Simplr becomes the user’s digital ‘environment’ generating visual, interactive ‘neighbourhoods’ of your related files that become familiar and grow more populated overtime.

Backstopping the interface would be a very powerful search that is contextual, using fuzzy logic and neural networks [machine learning] better understand the users goal, the file contents and enriched user metadata, like the rich context of EXIF image data. I envisioned this meta-tag-web of common and unique contextual information could be more relevant to the user, than limited file names and folder structures that we have used for decades.