imported>Headbomb: Add: isbn, page, chapter, title. | Use this tool. Report bugs. | #UCB_Gadget

2025-06-06T13:37:36Z

Add: isbn, page, chapter, title. | Use this tool. Report bugs. | #UCB_Gadget

New page

The '''task-focused interface''' is a type of [[user interface]] which extends the [[desktop metaphor]] of the [[graphical user interface]] 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 system]]s or large sets of documents. The task-focused interface is composed of a mechanism which allows the user to specify the [[Task (project management)|task]] being worked on and to [[Human multitasking|switch between active tasks]], a model of the task context such as a degree-of-interest (DOI) ranking,<ref name="Lenung-Distortion">{{cite journal
| first = Y. K.
| last = Leung
|author2=Apperley, M. D.
| year = 1994
| title = A review and taxonomy of distortion-oriented presentation techniques
| journal = ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
| volume = 1
| issue = 2
| pages = 126–160
| doi = 10.1145/180171.180173
| s2cid = 288680
| url = http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=180171.180173
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
| url-access = subscription
}}</ref> a focusing mechanism to filter or highlight the relevant documents. The task-focused interface has been validated with statistically significant<ref name="Task-Context-Productivity">{{cite conference
| first = Mik
| last = Kersten
|author2=Murphy, Gail C.
| title = Using task context to improve programmer productivity
| book-title = Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGSOFT International Foundations of Software Engineering Conference
| year = 2007
| doi = 10.1145/1181775.1181777
}}</ref> increases to [[knowledge worker]] productivity. It has been broadly adopted by programmers and is a key part of the [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]] [[integrated development environment]]. 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]] during his PhD at the [[University of British Columbia]] in 2004.<ref name="Kersten-Thesis">{{cite web
| year = 2008
| title = Mik Kersten Thesis
| url = http://www.cs.ubc.ca/grads/resources/thesis/Nov07/Kersten_Mik.pdf
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
}}</ref> Kersten previously worked on the [[aspect-oriented programming]] team at [[Xerox PARC]] and combined the idea of crosscutting aspects and [[task management]]. Early precursors to the task-focused interface include the attention-reactive<ref name="Card—Attention-Reactive">{{cite book
| date = 2005-01-10
| last = Card
| first = Stuart
| title = Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces
| chapter = Attention-reactive user interface for sensemaking
| page = 2
| author-link = Stuart Card
| doi = 10.1145/1040830.1040831
| isbn = 1-58113-894-6
| url = https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1040830.1040831
| access-date = 2023-03-02
| url-access = subscription
}}</ref> interface metaphor and the "Edit & Read Wear"<ref name="Tasktop-Team">{{cite conference
| date = 1992-06-01
| title = Edit wear and read wear
| book-title = Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
| conference = SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
| first1 = William C. | last1 = Hill
| first2 = James D. | last2 = Hollan | author2-link = James D. Hollan
| first3 = Dave | last3 = Wroblewski | author3-link = David Wroblewski
| first4 = Tim | last4 = McCandless
| publisher = ACM Press
| location = Monterey, California
| doi = 10.1145/142750.142751
| url = https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/142750.142751
| access-date = 2023-03-02
| url-access = subscription
}}</ref> document editing tool.

The first description of the task-focused interface concepts appeared in a 2005 [[Aspect-oriented software development|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.<ref name="Eclipse-Mylyn-Contributors">{{cite web
| year = 2009
| title = Eclipse Mylyn Project
| url = http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/contributors/
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
}}</ref> In 2006, a research group and the [[University of Victoria]] demonstrated the utility of the task-focused interface and degree-of-interest model for [[Ontology (information science)|ontology]] [[Visualization (computer graphics)|visualization]].<ref name="Storey-Degree-of-Interest">{{cite web
| year = 2006
| title = Using a Degree-of-Interest Model for Adaptive Visualizations in Protégé
| url = http://www.cs.uvic.ca/~chisel/pubs/protege06.pdf
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Netbeans-Cubeon">{{cite web
| year = 2009
| title = Netbeans Cubeon
| url = http://code.google.com/p/cubeon/
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
}}</ref> and the [[Tasktop Pro]] tool for [[project manager]]s. By 2009, most [[agile software development]] and [[application lifecycle management]] tools provided integration with Mylyn.<ref name="Eclipse-Mylyn-Extensions">{{cite web
| year = 2009
| title = Eclipse Mylyn Extensions
| url = http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Mylyn_Extensions
| access-date = 11 Sep 2009
}}</ref> In 2011 NBTaskFocus<ref name="NBTaskFocus">{{cite web
| year = 2011
| title = NBTaskFocus Project
| url = http://java.net/projects/nbtaskfocus
| access-date = 21 Oct 2011
}}</ref><ref name="NBTaskFocusTutorial">{{cite web
| year = 2011
| title = NBTaskFocus Tutorial
| url = http://weblogs.java.net/blog/tusharvjoshi/archive/2011/10/22/concentrating-task-hand-similar-mylyn-netbeans-ide
| access-date = 25 Oct 2011
}}</ref> got introduced which provided Mylyn like task-focused features in NetBeans IDE.

== Technology ==

{{refimprove section|date=November 2023}}

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.<ref>{{Cite web|first1=Mik |last1=Kersten|first2=Gail C.|last2= Murphy|title=Using Task Context to Improve Programmer Productivity|url=https://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1166132761135_1490040254_10541/p1-kersten.pdf|website=cmapspublic.ihmc.us}}</ref>

The Eclipse Mylyn project and NBTaskFocus <ref name="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 <ref name="NBTaskFocusTutorial" /> filters project panels and manages automatic task context for NetBeans IDE.

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/ Eclipse Mylyn Project]
* [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/53996/nbtaskfocus NBTaskFocus project for NetBeans IDE] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118073547/http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/53996/nbtaskfocus |date=2021-01-18 }}

[[Category:User interface techniques]]

Task-focused interface - Revision history

imported>Headbomb: Add: isbn, page, chapter, title. | Use this tool. Report bugs. | #UCB_Gadget