Workspaces: A Speculative Re-Imagining of Organizing Windows for Desktop Interfaces Colton Zuvich Jordan Silbert [email protected] [email protected] Cornell University Cornell University ABSTRACT MacOS), there has been a growing critique of the current In this paper we present Workspaces, a speculative design desktop setup as it can lead to cognitive overload and leads project which examines how users can semantically organize users to frequently task-switch between open applications their files, applications, and windows. Current desktop in- (Yuan, 2019). There is a growing trend in product design terfaces suffer from an abundance of stimuli which can over- to create digital products that focus on the ethical implica- whelm users working memory and impede concentration. tions of a design and whether the system respects the user’s Our primary goal is to design a more humane user-interface intentions [1]. Moreover, a recent trend in human factors which allows the user to operate with intention and bet- research, a sub-field called Neuroergonomics, specifically ter manage their open windows. To do this we explore the measures the cognitive toll various products/designs have history of the desktop metaphor and alternate attempts to on a users attention and how to best optimize those stimuli re-imagine personal computing in prior projects. We follow [14]. As such, designers are becoming more sensitive to how the human-centered design process which involved a series an interface impacts their cognitive experience of their users. of semi-structured interviews both prior and post our design Given the ubiquity and popularity of existing desktop phases to explore the problem space and evaluate our final operating systems the question arises whether a complete design. re-imagining of the desktop interface is possible, and if not, how we improve the existing interface to solve for its short- KEYWORDS comings. human-centered design, desktop metaphor, human factors, In this paper, we present Workspaces as a speculative product design, speculative design design prototype to mitigate the haphazard window arrange- ments and cognitive overload created by modern operating ACM Reference Format: systems. Colton Zuvich and Jordan Silbert. 2019. Workspaces: A Speculative Re-Imagining of Organizing Windows for Desktop Interfaces. In 2 RELATED WORKS Proceedings of Cornell University (Sensemaking Seminar). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn Desktop Metaphor & Applications The desktop metaphor is a skeuomorphic interaction metaphor 1 INTRODUCTION in which applications are represented as “pages” or “win- The desktop metaphor, a graphical user interface metaphor, dows” on a virtual desktop to make the capabilities of the is arguably what ushered in the era of personal computing. system clear to the user. This metaphor has been around The metaphor treats the computer display as a virtual desk- since the early 1970s, since Alan Kay and his pioneering top as if it were a physical desktop with objects displayed as work with window overlays in a graphical user interface, “windows” on the screen. While the metaphor is frequently first adopted by the early Macintosh computers. Ideas and used in modern operating systems (e.g. Microsoft Windows, trends from Kay’s original work can be seen throughout the many iterations to perfect the desktop with the major Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for developments in operating systems throughout the last 50 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 years. These iterations fall under two categories: ones that this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components use existing interpretations of the desktop, and others that of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with stray entirely from the metaphor. credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to In order to design for an updated desktop designers must redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request take into account the various methods users organize their permissions from [email protected]. physical files. According to Malone (1983) people canbe Sensemaking Seminar, December 19, 2019, Ithaca, NY © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. organized into categories based on how they organize their ACM ISBN 978-x-xxxx-xxxx-x/YY/MM...$15.00 physical desk spaces [12]. People can be categorized as either https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn filers, ‘pilers,’ or a combination of the two. Filers tendto Sensemaking Seminar, December 19, 2019, Ithaca, NY Colton Zuvich and Jordan Silbert use folders in a fleshed out organization system (typically closely they are positioned to the user. They developed a with neat piles of organized files on their desks), whereas virtual book, the “WebBook”, with pre-loaded files arranged ‘pilers’ are individuals who have loosely stacked piles of and displayed them as if they were in a physical book. They various documents strewed all over their desks with no clear then explored further into an entire environment, the “Web organizational system. He observes that this is influenced Forager” where these books and other pages were displayed by both a person’s personality but also by the type of job or based on this same metaphor. Information is arranged hier- tasks required of the person. In the current computational archically, broken down into three different levels: a focus desktop interface, filers can be seen to favor their Finder and place, an immediate memory space, and a tertiary place. The have organizational systems via folders, whereas pilers rely focus place is the main foreground, including the books and on their desktop space to place files where needed. Malone pages that the user is in direct contact with. The immediate also uncovered another function of papers on a physical memory space is a middle-ground where pages and books desk: reminding. Certain files are left out on a persons’ desk are suspended when they are not in immediate use or focus to function as a way to remind them that they have a task but are close by and pre-loaded in-case the user needs them. to complete. Understanding and incorporating the different The tertiary place is the bookshelf, where books and pages tendencies of the two different types of people, as well as are not being used and are assumed to not be referenced the functionality of the physical desk space is crucial to in the near future by the user, as they are filed away. Their developing a successful solution to the desktop metaphor. metaphor of the virtual-spatial arrangement of pages based Agarawala et al. (2006) aimed to develop a desktop space on frequency of use is a trend still evident in iterations of that resembled closely that of a physical desk [2]. They took the desktop years after this paper’s time. the idea of a work area in the physical world with piles of pa- Eugene (2018) set out to redefine how a user approaches pers, documents, files, and binders in a specific arrangement window management in a desktop environment. He focuses by the user, balanced in proximity with the file’s correspond- on placing windows in a long horizontal “flow” grouped ing level of immediacy. This virtual desktop was called Bump- by association to a specific subject or grouped by a certain top. It was designed to be less rigid, by using piles that can theme [6]. Windows are opened in full screen and ordered be dragged and tossed around the screen, incorporating the linearly based on priority, set by the user. Users have the feeling of friction and mass, as if they were physical papers power to add or remove windows, reorder windows, resize on a physical desk space. With the extension of the existing windows, and scroll through the horizontal view. To keep metaphor, participants in their preliminary study were easily track of this “flow,” Eugene implemented a “flow strip,” the able to pick up functionality and were comfortable with the mechanism that acts as an overview of the open apps in the prototype, making it very encouraging. user’s flow. It sizes down to a small bar at the bottom ofthe screen. The windows that are open are displayed as small, Alternative HCI Applications dark, consecutive, rectangles containing the name of the app Straying away from the early desktop designs, Rostom et al inside of the corresponding rectangle. This allows the user to (2006) focused on expanding the idea of the task bar from clearly view what is open and where it can be found if it is in being simply the thin strip complimenting the desktop [15]. the space off screen. Windows can be reordered by dragging They argued that the desktop has a large display area which the desired rectangle in the “flow strip” to the desired place, would work well as a space to feature a large number of or refocused by clicking the desired rectangle containing icons, thus taking the taskbar from its normal space and app. Apps can also be dragged directly from the doc into the transferring it into the space mentioned. Rostrom et al’s “flow bar” to be added to the desired “flow”. graphical user interface, contained centrally circular menus, Continuing with the extending-horizontal window flow, containing sub-menus which expand outward when selected, Yuan (2019) classified the existing desktop metaphor tobe maintaining the form of the circular menu. The goal of the inhumane and aimed to re-design the operating system to graphical user interface was to take advantage of the large be a “fluid experience driven by human intent” [17].