Self-directed concept · Desktop AI Sidekick

Most AI does the work for you. OTTO does it with you.

A small desk device that shows you how to finish your work instead of doing it for you. Hardware and software, designed together.

Project type

Consumer hardware
Desktop AI companion

Role

Industrial design, interaction design, prototyping

Tools

Rhino, Blender, Figma,
Adobe Creative Suite

Overview

An assistant that helps you finish tasks, and helps you learn.

OTTO is a desktop companion that sits beside your screen and works with you, not for you. It follows along with your project, steps in when you're stuck, and helps you build the skill instead of handing you the answer.

How OTTO Delivers

A work sidekick with a place on your desk

OTTO gives your AI agent a physical home beside your screen. It sees what you're working on and helps without getting in the way.

Keeps you focused

OTTO has its own screen next to your monitor, so you can ask for help without leaving your work.

Helps you learn as you go

Each task is broken into steps with the real commands and shortcuts, so you see how it's done and can do it yourself next time.

Knows what you're working on

OTTO pairs with your computer and follows the app you have open, so you never have to explain your project.

Keeps your whole day in view

The screen is built from cards, task to a card, like the sticky notes around your monitor - so you always know what to get done and when.

VS Code: one bug crashing checkout, with the patch offered directly — OTTO adapts to your every task big and small

The Opportunity Area

Currently the better an assistant gets, the less you learn.

AI tools work one prompt at a time, in a window apart from your work. Over time, that costs you focus now and skill later. That's the gap OTTO was designed to close.

Losing focus from the main task

AI lives in a separate window, so every question pulls you out of your work to explain it.

Lack of control on the output

Results come back incomplete or off, and you can't see or steer how they got there.

Missing context on accurte result

The tool only sees one prompt, not the project behind it, so you have to re-explain what you're building every time.

The Opportunity Area

Currently the better an assistant gets, the less you learn.

AI tools work one prompt at a time, in a window apart from your work. Over time, that costs you focus now and skill later. That's the gap OTTO was designed to close.

Losing focus from the main task

AI lives in a separate window, so every question pulls you out of your work to explain it.

Lack of control on the output

Results come back incomplete or off, and you can't see or steer how they got there.

Missing context on accurte result

The tool only sees one prompt, not the project behind it, so you have to re-explain what you're building every time.

Design principles

Three Principles Behind OTTO

Stay off the work

OTTO has its own screen, so help never sits on top of what you're working on.

Show the process

OTTO walks you through each step inside the file you're already working in, using the actual commands and shortcuts. That way you can do it yourself next time.

Know the work

OTTO pairs with the computers you work on and follows the project you have open, so you never have to explain what you're building.

Design principles

Three Principles Behind OTTO

Stay off the work

OTTO has its own screen, so help never sits on top of what you're working on.

Show the process

OTTO walks you through each step inside the file you're already working in, using the actual commands and shortcuts. That way you can do it yourself next time.

Know the work

OTTO pairs with the computers you work on and follows the project you have open, so you never have to explain what you're building.

Around twenty form explorations for OTTO — Form exploration: pill, wedge, folding and modular directions

Finding a shape that belongs on a desk

I sketched wide, low forms that could hold a readable screen in a body small enough not to feel like another computer. Angling the screen upward kept information glanceable without OTTO facing you head-on. The wedge won because it does that with no moving parts.

Finding a shape that belongs on a desk

Control and port layout studies — Controls, ports and part split studies across the body.

Scale and stance are hard to judge on screen, so each stage went onto the print bed, and a few rounds of radii studies followed before the form felt right in hand.

Radii stepped across the body, from too geometric to too soft. The red one is where it landed.

Each stage went onto the print bed. The first pass was undersized, and the last carries the ribs and material splits.

A Digital Sticky Note

The reference was sitting on the desk the whole time. Sticky notes work because each one holds a single thing, you can scan them all at once, and you pull the one you need to the front.

So the interface is built from rectangular cards, each holding one task, reminder or step list. They swap in and out as your day moves, and expand when you need to work inside one. The rest stay visible in the corner of your eye.

A Digital Sticky Note

The reference was sitting on the desk the whole time. Sticky notes work because each one holds a single thing, you can scan them all at once, and you pull the one you need to the front.

Each Component is like a Sticky on your desktop.

Rough wireframes from Figma went into Claude Design as a starting point, so I could compare card layouts quickly. Five or six components on a screen turned into clutter, so it settled at one large active component, a task component beside it, and a scrollable list of widgets underneath.

Wireframes from Figma, expanded into card layouts in Claude Design.

These visuals were about seeing whether OTTO belongs somewhere real: next to a monitor, on a desk that's already busy. Small enough to sit there without asking for attention, and clear enough to read in a glance when you need it.

That's the whole idea behind the project. Help that stays beside your work rather than in front of it, and leaves you a little better at the thing you were doing.