Dynamic semantic navigation for app launchers
That made me realize something: hard categories simply don’t work on desktop systems.
Users have different habits, apps overlap in function, naming is inconsistent, and no one wants to maintain folders. Automatic grouping is even worse — mislabels, weird clusters, inconsistent logic. And no vendor can maintain a global classification database for desktop apps.
Search isn’t great either. Desktop workflows are mostly mouse‑driven, so switching to the keyboard breaks the flow. Mixing local results with web content (and ads) makes it noisy and unreliable.
So here’s a small idea that popped into my head:
Instead of categories or pure search, why not use a dynamically generated semantic navigation?
- pinned apps stay as the stable entry
- “all apps” opens a space with semantic filters
- the system generates dynamic tags from local apps
- users click tags to narrow down step by step
- one app can appear under multiple paths
- lightweight multi‑level menus, always reversible
- alphabetical list stays as fallback
- manual search still exists for precision
Not hard categories. Not traditional search. Just a lightweight, dynamic, semantic map of your local apps.
It’s a small thought, but maybe a better direction — and it could work on mobile too.
(AI‑assisted translation from my original notes.)