How Not to Have to Navigate Through Too Many Displays

Abstract

Summary The first and most basic response of system developers to the expanding power of the computer and its increasing penetration into application areas has been to collect and make available more and more raw data. The modular nature of the computer as a medium for representation has allowed system developers to accommodate the expanded set of data easily (at least from a technology point of view) by adding more and more displays to the set of potentially observable frames hidden behind the narrow keyhole of the computer screen. The combination of a large field of raw data and a narrow keyhole have created a variety of problems for practitioners, people engaged in the practice of a profession or occupation.