From Personal Computers to Personal Information Environments

While today’s users work with and encounter a growing number and variety of computational devices (desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, PDAs, cellphones, etc.), continued adherence to the model of working with a single, personal computer has resulted in little support for coordinating activities across those devices. In fact, most devices are still completely unaware that a user might own other devices. In this talk I will describe my research group’s work on supporting the shift from working with a personal computer to working within a personal information environment that contains both a user’s personal devices and devices in his or her local environment. I will discuss the opportunities and challenges for interfaces that span multiple devices; present DIAMOND, a framework we are developing to facilitate exploration of the design space for multi-device interfaces; and describe some initial application point designs. I will also provide a brief overview of our other research on helping users coordinate their activities and information within their personal information environments.