Reference information
Authors: Tovi Grossman, Justin Matejka, George Fitzmauric
Where: UIST 2010, October 3–6, 2010, New York, New York, USA
Summary
Chronicle is an application that records workflow and user actions within other applications, allowing users to view and study these actions later. This idea was inspired by the fact that many applications already save these actions for undoing and redoing, but those records are not kept after the file (document, image, video, etc.) is saved. For example, in collaborating to edit an image, one user can use Chronicle to see how another user created certain effects.
Paint.NET was used for testing. The system consists of the main Chronicle window, an interactive timeline, and the Paint.NET window. The videos can be played back in full-resolution, placed transparently on top of the application window, with slightly different colors, so that the user can see what operations are occurring in relevance to their current situation and still distinguish the video from their own work. As the user is working, videos are recorded in one-minute segments. Videos are presented as thumbnails organized into a hierarchy, each representing a revision and containing workflow information. The system provides probes and filters to help the user navigate through the videos. Annotations can even be added to videos, for use as a reminder or for teaching purposes. A calendar view is also available to sow what an image looked like
at the end of each day it was worked on.
A user study was conducted with eight recruited participants, each with at least three years of image editing experience. Users were given brief introductions and walkthroughs of the system, then given 5 challenge tasks to complete. Users expressed positive comments on the system, largely rating its features easy to use. The designers conclude Chronicle can serve as a good learning and collaboration tool, doubling as a natural tutorial alternative.
The Chronicle interface. Source: publication
Discussion
This seems like a pretty useful tool. Even for individual use, I can see it being advantageous, as I can recall a few times when I have forgotten I did something in the past. I like that it acts as a natural tutorial, so it's a good way to learn how to use a new application. Throughout the paper, though, I did wonder about memory storage, since these videos can take up a lot of space.
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