Hi everyone! I'm a young interface design student from Berlin. Over the last year, I have been working on a concept to rethink the Mac OS desktop interface for productivity.

The main idea is that while smartphones have changed radically over just the last decade, the desktop has not evolved much beyond folders, windows and mouse input. With mobile devices now being used for casual use cases, the desktop interface could be rethought to improve efficiency for professional users.

You can check out the full concept on www.desktopneo.com or check out a short video on YouTube. I'll try to summarize the most important points here.

Replacing windows for better multitasking.

The problem with windows is that they take up a lot of space but still make it difficult to really multitask. That's why I replaced them with full-height panels that are placed next to each other without overlap. The result is a very quick interface for switching between apps while still having an easy spatial metaphor.

Using tagging for file management

Most of our content and data today isn’t based on files and folders. I use tags to create one single place for all your files, mails, friends, apps, documents, messages, and so on. Tags are much more flexible than folders to organize content and scale very well across form factors. I also designed a new Finder to make searching for your stuff through tags and filters super fast.

Tracking gaze and voice for efficient input

Eye tracking has advanced a lot in the last few years – it’s now super cheap and can be built into notebooks alongside the webcam. I used that to effectively eliminate the mouse for most use cases. Instead, you can look at something and then click on the trackpad to select that element. I also used the trackpad and voice input to make interacting with your content much more efficient.

Again, I can’t really get into all the details here, so you might want to check out the website.

Now, whether you agree with my approach or not, I believe it’s important to think about and discuss the future potential of desktop interfaces. So I’m posting this here to hear your thoughts and feedback on my concept, especially if you don’t share my views. ;)