The task-focused interface is a type of
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
which extends the
desktop metaphor
In computing, the desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users interact more easily with the computer. The desktop metaphor treats the computer monitor as if it is ...
of the
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
to make tasks, not files and folders, the primary unit of interaction. Instead of showing entire hierarchies of information, such as a tree of documents, a task-focused interface shows the subset of the tree that is relevant to the task-at-hand. This addresses the problem of
information overload when dealing with large hierarchies, such as those in
software systems or large sets of documents. The task-focused interface is composed of a mechanism which allows the user to specify the
task being worked on and to
switch between active tasks, a model of the task context such as a degree-of-interest (DOI) ranking,
a focusing mechanism to filter or highlight the relevant documents. The task-focused interface has been validated with statistically significant
increases to
knowledge worker
Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include programmers, physicians, pharmacists, architects, engineers, scientists, design thinkers, public accountants, lawyers, editors, and academics, whose job is ...
productivity. It has been broadly adopted by programmers and is a key part of the
Eclipse integrated development environment
An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...
. The technology is also referred to as the "task context" model and the "task-focused programming" paradigm.
History
The task-focused interface was invented by
Mik Kersten
Mik Kersten is a Polish- Canadian computer specialist who created and leads the open-source Eclipse Mylyn project. Kersten invented the Task-Focused Interface technology underlying Mylyn while working on his PhD at the University of British Col ...
during his PhD at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
in 2004.
Kersten previously worked on the
aspect-oriented programming
In computing, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a programming paradigm that aims to increase modularity by allowing the separation of cross-cutting concerns. It does so by adding behavior to existing code (an advice) ''without'' modifying th ...
team at
Xerox PARC
PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...
and combined the idea of crosscutting aspects and
task management
Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
. Early precursors to the task-focused interface include the attention-reactive
interface metaphor and the "Edit & Read Wear"
document editing tool.
The first description of the task-focused interface concepts appeared in a 2005
AOSD conference publication. The first implementation of the task-focused interface started as an
open source project called Eclipse
Mylyn, created in March 2005. The technology evolved with input and contributions from thousands of open source community developers.
In 2006, a research group and the
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...
demonstrated the utility of the task-focused interface and degree-of-interest model for
ontology
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...
visualization
Visualization or visualisation may refer to:
* Visualization (graphics), the physical or imagining creation of images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message
* Data visualization, the graphic representation of data
* Information visuali ...
.
In 2007, the Mylyn implementation was bundled with the majority of Eclipse IDE distributions. In 2008, alternate implementations of task-focused interface became available, including NetBeans Cubeon,
and the
Tasktop Pro tool for
project managers. By 2009, most
agile software development and
application lifecycle management
Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the product lifecycle management (governance, development, and maintenance) of computer programs. It encompasses requirements management, software architecture, computer programming, software testing, ...
tools provided integration with Mylyn.
In 2011 NBTaskFocus
got introduced which provided Mylyn like task-focused features in NetBeans IDE.
Technology
The primary goal of a task-focused interface is to scope the information shown in a computer application to just that relevant to the user's current task. Based on the user's interactions,
each uniquely identifiable element of information available to the user is assigned a degree-of-interest (DOI) ranking. The more frequently and recently a user has interacted with an element
of information, the higher the DOI for that element for that task.
The DOI rankings for the information elements can be used within a task-focused interface in four ways. Elements below a certain DOI threshold can be ''filtered'' to reduce the number of elements presented. Elements can be ''ranked'' according to their DOI; for instance, the elements of highest interest can be shown at the top of a list. The elements can be ''decorated'' with colours to indicate ranges of DOI. Finally, the display of structured information elements can be ''automatically managed'' based on DOI; for instance, text corresponding to elements with low DOI can be automatically elided.
The DOI value for each information element interacted with as part of a task can be derived from a stored history of interaction events recorded as the user works with the application. This approach requires a user to indicate the start of a task. The collection of all interaction events that take place during a single task is called a "task context".
Task-focused interfaces have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing information overload and improving productivity.
The Eclipse Mylyn project and NBTaskFocus
for NetBeans IDE is an implementation of the Task-Focused Interface. Mylyn filters, sorts, highlights, folds, and manages tree expansion for numerous views within the Eclipse IDE based on the currently active task. NBTaskFocus
filters project panels and manages automatic task context for NetBeans IDE.
References
External links
Eclipse Mylyn ProjectNBTaskFocus project for NetBeans IDE{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118073547/http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/53996/nbtaskfocus , date=2021-01-18
User interface techniques