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Left-over Windows Cause Window Clutter... But What Causes Left-over Windows?

Authors:

Julie Wagner,

Wendy E. Mackay,

Stéphane HuotAuthors Info & Claims

Ergo'IHM '12: Proceedings of the 2012 Conference on Ergonomie et Interaction homme-machine

Pages 213 - 216

https://doi.org/10.1145/2652574.2653442

Published: 16 October 2012 Publication History

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Abstract

Sleep mode lets users go for days or weeks without rebooting, supporting work on multiple tasks that they can return to later. However, users also struggle with window clutter, facing an increasing number of `left-over windows' that get in the way. Our goal is to understand how users create and cope with left-over windows. We conducted a two-week field study with ten notebook users. We found that they work in very short sessions, switching often between computer-based and external tasks. 34% of left-over windows remain untouched for a day or more, increasing in quantitity until they all disappear after a reboot. Some users reboot as a deliberate `clean-up' strategy, whereas others lose left-over windows after an unexpected system crash. Users intentionally keep left-over windows as to-do lists, as reminders of upcoming tasks, and for facilitating future access; the rest are simply forgotten. Tools for visualizing and managing left-over windows should help users reduce window clutter, while maintaing the benefits of interruptible work sessions.

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Cited By

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Han HYu JBournet RCiorascu AMackay WBeaudouin-Lafon M(2022)Passages: Interacting with Text Across DocumentsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3502052(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3502052
Zeidler CLutteroth CWeber G(2013)An Evaluation of Stacking and Tiling Features within the Traditional Desktop MetaphorHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 201310.1007/978-3-642-40483-2_49(702-719)Online publication date: 2013
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40483-2_49

Index Terms

Left-over Windows Cause Window Clutter... But What Causes Left-over Windows?
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Context specific languages
      1. Window managers

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Ergo'IHM '12: Proceedings of the 2012 Conference on Ergonomie et Interaction homme-machine

October 2012

261 pages

ISBN:9781450318464

DOI:10.1145/2652574

Conference Chairs:
Régis Mollard
Université Paris Descartes
,
Franck Poirier
Université de Bretagne-Sud
,
Frédéric Vanderhaegen
Université de Valenciennes

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for 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 this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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AFIHM: Ass. Francophone d'Interaction Homme-Machine

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 16 October 2012

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Ergo'IHM '12: Ergonomie et Interaction homme-machine

October 16 - 19, 2012

Biarritz, France

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Han HYu JBournet RCiorascu AMackay WBeaudouin-Lafon M(2022)Passages: Interacting with Text Across DocumentsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3502052(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3502052
Zeidler CLutteroth CWeber G(2013)An Evaluation of Stacking and Tiling Features within the Traditional Desktop MetaphorHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 201310.1007/978-3-642-40483-2_49(702-719)Online publication date: 2013
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40483-2_49

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Approximate counts and quantiles over sliding windows

Mathieu Windows for Signal Processing

Elastic windows: improved spatial layout and rapid multiple window operations

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