3 major functions of laptop
Internet
Software
Management
Do laptops provide the best environment
to manage information?
Compared to the iPhone with facial recognition, multiple sensors, and high-quality camera, our laptop doesn't seem so smart anymore. It still provides better processing ability, but it doesn't provide the best environment for users to do management. We just use our computer to access other platforms.
What is the problem with
the current system?
Folders are a hierarchical structure
Folders are good to use for categorization. But it's inflexibility makes organizing messy and time-consuming when dealing with enormous amounts of data. All the data are scattered around with no connection to each other.
How we categorize information
might be different from how we connect them
?
Storage location
Organized thread
Voyager runs a parallel system:
linear folders together with "stacks"
Introducing "Stacks"
Stacks is a network structure
This is a concept from HyperCard. A stack is formed by a group of cards and a card can be linked to any other cards. It helps users to "connect dots" and build their own "thread of thought".
Scenario I - Single picture
Imagine you have categorized your data into 5 different folders
Then you found one of the pictures is related to other materials outside of its folder
1
Press the "Add to Stacks" button
2
Select a stack
3
Insert the picture
Rearrange the order of cards
-
Voyager allows users to group the related data together without changing their storage location.
-
The trail is read from left to right, top to bottom.
-
Users can edit cards by using copy+paste, writing text or annotating.
4
Select a card
Retrieve its storage location
by clicking
For example, the floating card is from "Architecture Machine.pdf", page 7, which is under the "Recommended reading" folder.
Scenario II - Multiple pages
Open a PDF file
Select the desired section to make it a card
Insert the new card to any other stacks
-
Data can be linked beyond folders, even from files
-
Now you can build your own way of thinking, instead of being restricted by the raw material order.
Scenario III - Retrieve multiple folders
Imagine you could find
multiple location at once,
all in one window
Select all cards
Click the folder button
-
The folders will sit in the corresponding position to the cards.
-
For example, the floating card comes from the "2017 Res_Pres"powerpoint, page 15, which is located at the folder of "2015 Cybercon"
Scenario IV - Internet
Imagine every time you find something useful from the internet
but had to save the whole page to prevent losing the link.
Then you forget what you saved this page for.
1
Select a section
Right click "Add to Stacks"
2
Side window opens
Insert the thumbnail to the desired stack
3
Save the webpage as archive
-
The card will automatically remember where the webpage is stored.
-
Now you can focus on the piece you want to edit, instead of the
whole page.
Build your way of thinking
Categorized Information & Organized Thought
Interface is the point of contact and interaction between a machine and the "information environment." The observation channel in which we are interested is where the processors become tangent to the real world by directly sensing it or by communicating with a human (who senses it).
By Nicholas Negroponte, Toward a Theory of Architecture Machines
