Scalable Fabric: flexible task management

ABSTRACT

Our studies have shown that as displays become larger, users leave more windows open for easy multitasking. A larger number of windows, however, may increase the time that users spend arranging and switching between tasks. We present Scalable Fabric, a task management system designed to address problems with the proliferation of open windows on the PC desktop. Scalable Fabric couples window management with a flexible visual representation to provide a focus-plus-context solution to desktop complexity. Users interact with windows in a central focus region of the display in a normal manner, but when a user moves a window into the periphery, it shrinks in size, getting smaller as it nears the edge of the display. The window "minimize" action is redefined to return the window to its preferred location in the periphery, allowing windows to remain visible when not in use. Windows in the periphery may be grouped together into named tasks, and task switching is accomplished with a single mouse click. The spatial arrangement of tasks leverages human spatial memory to make task switching easier. We review the evolution of Scalable Fabric over three design iterations, including discussion of results from two user studies that were performed to compare the experience with Scalable Fabric to that of the Microsoft Windows XP TaskBar.

REFERENCES

• 1: Liam Bannon , Allen Cypher , Steven Greenspan , Melissa L. Monty, Evaluation and analysis of users' activity organization, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p.54-57, December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/800045.801580]
• 2: Patrick Baudisch , Nathaniel Good , Paul Stewart, Focus plus context screens: combining display technology with visualization techniques, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, November 11-14, 2001, Orlando, Florida [doi>10.1145/502348.502354]
• 3: Benjamin B. Bederson , James D. Hollan, Pad++: a zooming graphical interface for exploring alternate interface physics, Proceedings of the 7th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.17-26, November 02-04, 1994, Marina del Rey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/192426.192435]
• 4: Blaine A. Bell , Steven K. Feiner, Dynamic space management for user interfaces, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.239-248, November 06-08, 2000, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/354401.354790]
• 5: S. A. Bly , J. K. Rosenberg, A comparison of tiled and overlapping windows, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.101-106, April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• 6: Stuart K. Card , Austin Henderson, Jr., A multiple, virtual-workspace interface to support user task switching, Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI conference on Human factors in computing systems and graphics interface, p.53-59, April 05-09, 1987, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 7: Cutrell, E., Czerwinski, M. & Horvitz, E. (2001). Notification, Disruption and Memory: Effects of Messaging Interruptions on Memory and Performance. In Human-Computer Interaction--Interact '01 (pp. 263--269). IOS Press.
• 8: Czerwinski, M., van Dantzich, M., Robertson, G., & Hoffman, H. (1999). The contribution of thumbnail image, mouse-over text and spatial location memory to web page retrieval in 3D. In Proc. Interact 1999 (pp. 163--170), Edinburgh, Scotland, IOS Press.
• 9: Czerwinski, M., Cutrell, E. & Horvitz, E. (2000). Instant Messaging and Interruption: Influence of Task Type on Performance. In Proc. OZCHI 2000 (pp. 356--361). Sydney, Australia.
• 10: Czerwinski, M., Cutrell, E. & Horvitz, E. (2000b). Instant Messaging: Effects of Relevance and Time. Proc. HCI 2000, Vol. 2, (pp. 71--76). British Computer Society.
• 11: Czerwinski, M. & Horvitz, E. (2002). Memory for Daily Computing Events. In Proc. HCI 2002, (pp. 230--245).
• 12: Mary Czerwinski , Eric Horvitz , Susan Wilhite, A diary study of task switching and interruptions, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.175-182, April 24-29, 2004, Vienna, Austria [doi>10.1145/985692.985715]
• 13: Goldberg, A. (1983). Smalltalk-80. NY: Addison-Wesley.
• 14: François Guimbretière , Maureen Stone , Terry Winograd, Fluid interaction with high-resolution wall-size displays, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, November 11-14, 2001, Orlando, Florida [doi>10.1145/502348.502353]
• 15: D. Austin Henderson, Jr. , Stuart Card, Rooms: the use of multiple virtual workspaces to reduce space contention in a window-based graphical user interface, ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), v.5 n.3, p.211-243, July 1986 [doi>10.1145/24054.24056]
• 16: Eser Kandogan , Ben Shneiderman, Elastic Windows: evaluation of multi-window operations, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.250-257, March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/258549.258720]
• 17: Kaptelinin, V. (2002). UMEA: User-monitoring environment for activities. In Proc. UIST'02 Companion, (pp. 31--32).
• 18: Blair MacIntyre , Elizabeth D. Mynatt , Stephen Voida , Klaus M. Hansen , Joe Tullio , Gregory M. Corso, Support for multitasking and background awareness using interactive peripheral displays, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, November 11-14, 2001, Orlando, Florida [doi>10.1145/502348.502355]
• 19: Thomas W. Malone, How do people organize their desks?: Implications for the design of office information systems, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.1 n.1, p.99-112, Jan. 1983 [doi>10.1145/357423.357430]
• 20: Brad A. Myers, A Taxonomy of Window Manager User Interfaces, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, v.8 n.5, p.65-84, September 1988 [doi>10.1109/38.7762]
• 21: Elizabeth D. Mynatt , Takeo Igarashi , W. Keith Edwards , Anthony LaMarca, Flatland: new dimensions in office whiteboards, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: the CHI is the limit, p.346-353, May 15-20, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/302979.303108]
• 22: Jun Rekimoto, Time-machine computing: a time-centric approach for the information environment, Proceedings of the 12th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.45-54, November 07-10, 1999, Asheville, North Carolina, United States [doi>10.1145/320719.322582]
• 23: George Robertson , Mary Czerwinski , Kevin Larson , Daniel C. Robbins , David Thiel , Maarten van Dantzich, Data mountain: using spatial memory for document management, Proceedings of the 11th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.153-162, November 01-04, 1998, San Francisco, California, United States [doi>10.1145/288392.288596]
• 24: George Robertson , Maarten van Dantzich , Daniel Robbins , Mary Czerwinski , Ken Hinckley , Kirsten Risden , David Thiel , Vadim Gorokhovsky, The Task Gallery: a 3D window manager, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.494-501, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/332040.332482]
• 25: Smith, G., Baudisch, P., Robertson, G., Czerwinski, M., Meyers, B., Robbins, D., and Andrews, D. (2003). GroupBar: The TaskBar Evolved. In Proc. OZCHI'03.
• 26: Warren Teitelman, Ten years of window systems—a retrospective view, Proceedings of an Alvey Workshop on Methodology of window management, p.35-46, March 1986, Cosener's House, Abingdon, United Kingdom
• 27: XDesk Software (2003), About Virtual Desktop Managers, http://www.virtual-desktop.info.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Management

Keywords:
interaction, scaling, spatial memory, task management