1 Scalable Fabric: A Flexible Representation for Task Management

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 prolifera-tion of open windows on the PC desktop. Scalable Fab-ric couples a flexible visual representation with window management 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 down in size, getting smaller as it nears the edge of the display. The Window “minimize ” action is rede-fined 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 to-gether into named tasks, and task switching is accom-plished with a single mouse click. The spatial arrange-ment of tasks leverages human spatial memory to make task switching easier. We review the evolution of Scal-able Fabric over three design iterations, including dis-cussion of results from two user studies that were per-formed to compare the experience with Scalable Fabric to that of the legacy Microsoft Windows XP TaskBar. 1