Re: [Usability] Prototyping the next generation panel

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Nov 7, 2008, at 6:57 PM, Jacob Beauregard wrote:
> ...
> Would you consider this practical?:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_lxBwvf3Vk
>
> I really wouldn't. I don't think I should have to worry about managing 
> files at all, never mind on my desktop. You've also got a problem in 
> the model with the preconceived notion that a desktop contains files 
> and shortcuts. This shows that even someone with an experimental 
> perspective can be hindered by sticky preconceptions. What I'm trying 
> to get at is that the question isn't necessarily how do you use your 
> desktop, but in what ways can you use your desktop outside of the 
> boundaries of what's already defined that would make it more useful to 
> you.
> ...

Be careful to remember that a computer having "a desktop" is also a 
preconceived notion. It dates from the era when almost everything 
people did on a computer was deal with documents: get them out of a 
folder and put them on the desktop while working on them, save them 
and/or print them, and then return them ("Put Away") to their previous 
folder.

But now we use PCs to handle e-mail, movies, instant messages, music in 
vast quantities, audio calls, weather updates, games, photos, models of 
the earth and the sky, IRC channels, news, family trees, book 
collections, Web pages, and many other things that make little sense on 
"a desktop". Individual applications may help me organize individual 
items in this list, but computers don't seem to help me much in 
organizing overall projects or activities.

Take a simple example of "things that need doing". I have a "To do" 
folder containing various files and Web shortcuts for things I need to 
deal with. I have a "To do" e-mail folder containing messages 
describing tasks I need to work on (and then reply to). I have a text 
file listing other things I need to work on. And I have a list of 
to-dos on the Web, which in my case is a list of bugs assigned to me. 
Why can't the computer help me arrange this into a single, 
non-duplicating list that's categorized by topic instead of by medium?

Cheers
--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/