Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

skip to main content
article
Free access

A multiple, virtual-workspace interface to support user task switching

Published: 01 May 1986 Publication History

Abstract

An interface is presented that is designed to help users switch among tasks on which they are concurrently working. Nine desirable properties for such an interface are derived. It is argued that a key constraint to building interfaces that support task switching is that low user-overhead switching among tasks requires a large amount of display space, whereas actual display space is limited. A virtual workspace design is presented that greatly speeds the inevitable task-switching induced window faulting. The resulting interface is presented as a study in theory-based human-interface design. It is shown how in this case theory is important in inspiring a design, but design entailments outside the theory raise new issues that must be faced to make the design viable. These design experiences, in turn, help inspire new theory.

References

[1]
Bannon, L., Cypher, A., Greenspan, S., and Monty, M. L., Proceedings of the ACM Human Factors in Software Conference, CHI '83 (1983), 54-57.]]
[2]
Bannon, L., Cypher, A., Greenspan, S., and Monty, M., Evaluation and analysis of users' activity organization. Transcript of talk delivered at CHI '83, San Franciso, December, 1983.]]
[3]
Bolt, R. A. The Human Interface. Belmont, California: Lifetime Learning Publications, 1984.]]
[4]
Card, S. K., Pavel, M., and Farrell, J. Window-based computer dialogues. In B. Shackel (Ed.), Human-Computer Interaction-Interaction '84 (London, Aug. 1984), 239-243. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, B. V., 1985.]]
[5]
Chan, P. P., Learning Considerations in User Interface Design: The Room Model (Report CS-84-16). Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: University of Waterloo Computer Science Department, 1984.]]
[6]
Denning, P. J. Working sets past and present. 1EEE Transactions of Software Engineering, SE-6 (1980), 66-84.]]
[7]
Donahue, J. and Widom, J. Whiteboards: A Graphical Database Tool (Report CSL-84-4). Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, California, June, 1985.]]
[8]
Goldberg, A. Smalltalk-80. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1983.]]
[9]
Henderson, A. and Card, S. Rooms: The use of multiple virtual workspaces to reduce space contention in a window-based graphical user interface. ACM Transactions on Graphics, in press.]]
[10]
Kahn, K. C., Program Behavior and Load Dependent System Performance. Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Computer Science, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indianna, August, 1976.]]
[11]
McGregor, S. The viewer window package. In J. H. Homing (Ed.). The Cedar System: An Anthology of Documentation (Report CSL-83-14). Palo alto, California: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 1983.]]
[12]
Mintzberg, H., The Nature of Managerial Work. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.]]
[13]
Teitelman, W., Ten years of window system - A retrospective view. In Hopgood, F. R. A., Duce, D. A., Fielding, E. V. C., Robinson, K., Williams, A. S. (Eds.). Methodology of Window Management. Berlin: Springer- Verlag, 1986.]]

Cited By

View all
  • (2009)Auditory priming for upcoming eventsCHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1520340.1520644(4225-4230)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Self-interruption on the computerProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1518701.1518979(1799-1808)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Capturing and Restoring the Context of Everyday WorkProceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Centered Design: Held as Part of HCI International 200910.1007/978-3-642-02806-9_108(945-954)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2009
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
ACM SIGCHI Bulletin  Volume 18, Issue 4
April 1987
319 pages
ISSN:0736-6906
DOI:10.1145/1165387
Issue’s Table of Contents
  • cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '87: Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and Graphics Interface
    May 1987
    344 pages
    ISBN:0897912136
    DOI:10.1145/29933
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 May 1986
Published in SIGCHI Volume 18, Issue 4

Check for updates

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)243
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)43
Reflects downloads up to 15 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2009)Auditory priming for upcoming eventsCHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1520340.1520644(4225-4230)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Self-interruption on the computerProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1518701.1518979(1799-1808)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Capturing and Restoring the Context of Everyday WorkProceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Centered Design: Held as Part of HCI International 200910.1007/978-3-642-02806-9_108(945-954)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2009
  • (2007)Disruption and recovery of computing tasksProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1240624.1240730(677-686)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2007
  • (1987)CATALOGUES: A METAPHOR FOR COMPUTER APPLICATION DELIVERYHuman–Computer Interaction–INTERACT '8710.1016/B978-0-444-70304-0.50151-5(959-964)Online publication date: 1987
  • (2024)Assessing Memory Performance for Supplementary Information in VRCognitive Aspects of Virtual Reality10.1007/978-3-031-68130-1_8(133-146)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2024
  • (2024)Operational Complexity and Evaluating Digital InterfacesCognitive Aspects of Virtual Reality10.1007/978-3-031-68130-1_14(249-269)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2024
  • (2024)Pick, Click, Flick!undefinedOnline publication date: 14-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Investigating the Operational Complexity of Digital Workflows Based on Human Cognitive AspectsElectronics10.3390/electronics1203052812:3(528)Online publication date: 19-Jan-2023
  • (2022)Role of Presence, Memory and Spatial Ability in a Desktop Virtual RealityAccentuated Innovations in Cognitive Info-Communication10.1007/978-3-031-10956-0_4(79-97)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2022
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Login options

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media