Studying about User Experience and Usability Design, I became suddenly aware of little things I do everyday that could be made more efficient. Here’s one on handling files on work and at home.

The Problem of Handling Files

I realize how annoyed I get when I try to work on some documents and files both at home and in the office. Sometimes I find that a document I really need (or a version of it) is at home just when I need to work on it in the office. Same thing at work - I just saved an important file I worked on the previous and totally forget to bring it at work (yep, it happens). So what do I do? I call home and have someone there e-mail it to me.

How Can I get My Files?

Well little things like these are not pleasant user experiences. As I user I need to establish a system that allows me to efficiently work with files wherever I am. So, being the tech geek that I am, I searched around for answers online. I saw an officemate access his files using GoToMyPC. It was interesting at first, but when you see the lag time it takes to just move the mouse arrow around, it suddenly looks rather unpleasant. My other geek officemate tells me - interesting, but it’s not worth it.

Perhaps Some Online Web Applications?

Then I looked at the various web apps that allowed me to remotely save files. I saw these great-looking online office applications:

- Zoho: Zoho offers a suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy collaboration.

- ThinkFree: Solutions for small business: provide office applications and enable online collaboration for a fraction of the cost.

- Google Docs: Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you share and collaborate online.

I already use Google Docs. My only main problem with it is how the presentations app could be so much improved. Really, I missed PowerPoint’s moving fonts/graphics on this one. I also wanted a preview of the text editor to at least show the borders of a standard printed page (just like in Microsoft word). Seeing the printed preview while editing it sure helps me a lot if making my document aesthetically pleasing.

Well, while on lifehacker, I found some interesting links to AjaxWrite and the online desktop application called AjaxWindows. Well, the app demo was quite an experience. I was able to see how using AjaxWindows was. I looked at a review of this application and tended to agree with the feedback on it. It was simply impractical.

Or Online Storage?

Then I figured… “What I really need is some sort of online storage system.” Since I already have office productivity applications both at home and at work, I just needed a common repository for my large files. So I searched online storages and what do I see?

5 Gigagbytes of free storage space on Xdrive. Now, should I sign up for this or is this just a waste of time? If you look at their website, they do have the very nice and enticing CNet badge floating at the very front. Hey, it’s an AOL service! It must be top notch!

Wait a second. I do have Gmail which has 6GB free space, right? Now why do I need this for? Well Xdrive does have those cool add ins like:

-Desktop Integration: Instantly upload, share, and schedule a backup of any file or folder. Xdrive Desktop integrates into your Windows Explorer so you can easily drag and drop files and folders directly to your Xdrive account hassel-free. (Opps did an AOL company just mistype hassle? Yeah they did.)

- Skip the Download®, the faster way to quickly transfer downloadable content from any website directly to your Xdrive account. Skip the Download® offers two ways of easily uploading items directly from the web.

Hmm, that’s it! I’ll try this out then! This is just what I need!

Oh Yeah, I also have a USB flash disk.

Duhh. So, umm. Now do I still need that online storage again? Ow, what the heck, I might just find something useful to do with it. Ahh, the fun of User Experience (UX) studying…