User Activity Histories

Current software interfaces fail to incorporate historical data from user interaction into their design. While some systems exhibit a minimalist use of history in the form of undo and redo, selective menu items, and other static elements, there has been a lack of use of history in the dynamic elements of interaction. We propose a more widespread use of historical data from user-software interaction to augment the desktop and application environment. We believe the use of historical data can improve the user's experience at many different levels. Our approach begins by assuming that everything the user is doing on the desktop is important to them, and that it will be important again in the future.