Information-Enriched Workspaces Yunwen Ye Aspen Symposium

Introduction Distributed cognition Knowledge-intensive activities require knowledge from the user and the world Easy access to external information is essential to the performance of such activities Information-enriched workspaces Immediate access to external information within the workspace

Current Model of Information Repository Systems Knowing the existence of information Evaluating the information Articulating the queries Applying the information Workspace Information Repository System

Information-Enriched Workspace (IEW) Information acquisition as a part of work processes Integration of acquiring and applying information Information Repository Information Display Information-Enriched Workspace

Design Principles for IEW (1/2) Integration Reducing the memory loss caused by context switch Multiple communication channels Explicit communication channel Implicit communication channel Layered information Information discernment vs. detailed evaluation Details on demand: progressive revelation of detailed information ……

Design Principles for IEW (2/2) Natural interface Consistent operation style with working environments Information delivery Providing access to unknown information Shared understanding of the larger context Taking into consideration of larger context of current task User-specific Accommodating individual difference in knowledge

An Example: CodeBroker Programming Environment Reusable Components Information Display Listener Fetcher Reuse Queries Presenter Retrieved Components Component Repository Programmers reuse

Agent-based task-specific delivery Interface agents for repository systems Combining information access and information delivery Invoking the component-locating process directly from the programming environment Command style consistent with Emacs operations Delivery of potentially reusable components based on programmer’s task Modeling the task based on comments and signatures

Agent-based task-specific delivery Programming Environment Reusable Components Information Display Listener Fetcher Reuse Queries Presenter Retrieved Components Component Repository Programmers reuse Concept: Create a random number between two limits Constraint: int <- int x int

Shared Larger Context By specifying the high-level goal By incremental discourse modeling to capture the (un)interested information Specifying (un)interested packages or classes Remove uninterested packages or classes

User-specific Removing known components from the information display based on user models Adaptable and adaptive user modeling Add java.awt.CardLayout to the user model Add java.util.Vector.addElement to the user model

Layered Information Short description in the information display (name and synopsis) Mouse-sensitive information (signatures and matching keywords) Detailed information in an external browser Example programs Links to experts Example programs