IBM RC8384 Schild PICTUREWORLD A Concept For Future Office Systems

RC 8384 (#36518) 7/ 30/80 39 pages Computer Science Research Report PICTUREWORLD: A Concept for Future Office Systems l·J . sch i l d L• R • Po ~-1 e r M. K<irnaugh IBM Thom~s J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 10598 ,. ~~ Research Divisi on San Jose · York town . Zurich Copies may be requested from: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center Distribution Services 36-068 Post Office Box 218 Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 1 RC 8384 (#36518) 7/30/80 Computer Science 39 pages PICTUREWORLD: A Concept for Future Offlce Systems IL Sch j 1 d * L. R. Pol•er M. Karnaugh IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Helghts, N.Y. 10598 ABSTRACT: After a characterlzatlon of the work of offlce prlnclpals and a statement of some qualltatlve requlrements, the system concept called "Plctureworld" ls descrlbed. Plctureworld provldes the user with an understandable, self-promptjng lnterface whlch cilsplays lconlc r2presentatlons of famlllar offlce objects. It ls easy to learn and to remember how to command the system. Functions for an entry level system are deflned. A software organlzatlon ln terms of Plctureworld objects wlll facilitate maintenance and expansion of tl1e system. In view of large areas of lgnorance concernlng the acceptablllty and value of prlnclpal support systems, Plctureworld ls proposed 011ly as one con1po11ent of a larger progrant of research. * W. Schlld was formerly with IBM Israel. l· Introduction The anticipated widespread use of electronic systems to support the work of office principals will bring a very large group of non-programmers into frequent close interaction with information processing systems. Because the users will not be highly motivated to develop their programming skills, the design of principal support systems poses some special problems. Either the services offered must be stereotyped, narrow, and inflexible or else the user interface and the system software must provide much more competence in modeling the users' task environment and needs than has previously been attempted, The office environment already provides support devices that aid principals in stereotyped, narrow, inflexible and also non-integrated ways. These include the telephone, the file cabinet, and the hand calculator. The challenge faced by the information systems designer is to bring into being a class of systems that come much closer to meeting the principals' needs. This is not merely a question of good implementation; the functional requirements and cost-effectiveness tradeoffs are not yet well understood. This report includes a discussion of the principal and his work (Section 2), some of the qualitative functional requirements for effective principal support (Section 3), and in later sections, an approach to the designs of the user interface and the system software for a proposed experimental system. This approach will be called "Pictureworld." .. ' . We have not implemented a Pictureworld system and we make no cla…