Ideas

After investigation patterns that emerged in breakdowns in the collaboration and group space, we each brainstormed individually on ideas that would address some of the problems.

Task Patterns

Task Patterns is a reworking of the taskmaster system by Victoria Bellotti to include task patterns. Here the user could receive an email and convert it to a task and assign the appropriate category.

Task Email ( Place at end)

Why are tasks separated from emails? In the business environment, in many cases they are the same. People send themselves reminders through email. This idea looks at what happens when we combine the two worlds into one screen. You could turn an e-mail into a task. Doing so would allow for task related attributes to be available (eg. Due Date, % Complete etc.). In addition, users could send a task-email to someone with these already set. In the example above, you can see some tasks in the window as indicated by the checkbox.

Another visualization of this could be that it is e-mail on one side, then when the message is spun around (enter looking glass) the other side would be task information.

Yes/No Email

Yes/No E-mail allows users to send yes/no question; it allows recipients to reply with clicking buttons labeled “yes” or “no”. Clicking either button would send the reply If the receivers want to add any comments, they can do so. One benefit is a quick response, and another benefit is that a sender would be able to set up the next action, which would be automatically activated based on the response.

Save as work space

When people work on certain tasks, they usually open multiple applications, such as E-mail application, Word Processing, and Internet browsers. If the users use tab-browser, like Mozilla, they might open multiple websites. The idea of “save as workspace” would enable users to preserve the state of their desktop on which several applications are opened.

Task Log

Task Log is a window that would be visible to all members of a team. It would enable the team to track who did what and when.

This data rich view would be especially useful if clicking on a record allowed the members to take actions. For example, if a new record said “Mike updated design_idea.txt”, his colleagues could click on the record and automatically open the text file. By setting up filters, members can track a particular action, such as “Mike’s work” or “*.txt”

Bubble Wrap quick responses

Based on the Zaplets idea, you send an email to "Frank" that asks him if he can let us know when the task is due. There can be a text field for his quick response. Response in the text field creates a "bubble" on your screen that shows the answer. You "pop" the bubble to recognize the information/acknowledgment and it updates your task list.

This mechanism would provide a tactile pleasure of completing tasks and making progress. Plus, people really like popping bubble wrap.

Including Remote Workers

How to reduce the effort for remote workers on maintaining visibility and fitting in with the team? A quick popup of the local weather report for the remote area on the shared project workspace would provide a conversation piece to help with the initial group chitchat. A local news blurb could also work well to promote conversation and to give a pulse on what is going on remotely. Another tool would be the time zone visualizer that shows where they are in their day on the shared project workspace. This would be especially useful for teams that work in India for example.

People Palette

The People Palette is a palette similar to Adobe products that contains an image that represents a person (or a photo like in Orkut) and a label of their name. You can group people under project groups. You can drag and drop a group or a person onto an email or a task. If someone sends you a "hot" task, their image glows to show that they are demanding your attention. Integrate the People Palettes with an IM client to show availability - are they online on IM, the project space?

Patrick just sent you a hot task.

Tasks World – A Visual Group Workspace

So how do you get people to both want to create tasks for themselves and also to display where you are visually in your task list. This image, courtesy of a windows game "Slay", is a strategy game where you conquer mapped areas similar to Risk.

This image serves as a metaphor for how a user might be able to see what "Project" tasks they still have outstanding, what other tasks are precursors for your task based on proximity and how the entire section can't be completed until all are done. Each person on a project team could have a icon to show their responsibility and each project could have a different color for different projects that feed off each other. Keeping the Risk/strategy idea in mind, a task could be on fire if it is really important, etc.

This idea also leverages off of Wendy Kellogg's research in information visualization and group collaboration. In her demo, the hexagonal squares represent each person in an org chart and color signifies whether the task has been completed or not.

Group Workspace

This idea incorporates a group-based task panel that aggregates tasks. The idea is that there would be a shared workspace or folder where everyone in the group would have access to vies different tasks contained within. This would provide visibility into the status of everyone’s tasks. This view could be toggled and spin sideways to show the information into a gantt chart to give a timeline perspective of the tasks.

Additionally, the vertical bar on the left keeps track of the time and indicates when tasks are due. The bar would sit on the side of a users screen and would slowly turn gray as time passed. The red dots indicate when tasks are due. Calendaring information could also be included.

Other Ideas and Thoughts (Less developed)

A list of tasks that stay visible in the corner of your desktop that hide when you select one to work on.
Differentiating goals from tasks… Several tasks make up a goal. This could be communicated through the use of several connected gears where once a task is complete the gear spins slightly until all tasks are complete.
Task Templates – A set of templates that contain common aspects of a task. Eg. Problem Definition, pre-work checklist, post-work follow-ups, etc.
Due dates of tasks displayed on a person’s calendar.
An application that records length of IM time with teammates that would be included in a status report.
In IM if you focus on another window a “Do Not Disturb” sign would be displayed by their buddy icon.
When you create an email with more than two or three names, you would be asked if you wish to make an alias for the group.
Emails with the ability to embed fields directly in them to collect information.
E.g. Hello – When is the meeting? _________ . This could then automatically update on your calendar or task list.
Visualize tasks and progress, *more flow, less work*
Snowy mail & stony mail - The user could send an email with an expiration date (snowy mail that melts) that would automatically delete. For time related communications this could assist in keeping people’s inbox clean. Stony mail on the other had has no expiration date and therefore does not melt.
Multiple desktops - Similar to Unix machines where a user could have multiple desktops, the use could share different desktops with others. Another twist on this would be to have one or more of the desktops be a shared work space. If someone was working in that space you could see in real-time what they are doing. This is somewhat similar to a WebEx or other conferencing software.
Enhanced IM and awareness - Using IM as a platform could be build upon this and provide better awareness amongst groups of people. Awareness on a team level versus individual and the use of different visualizations to communicate status e.g. fading icons or other effects done to images.