Ad-hoc collections workflows

Motivation

• Explicit collections are intended to be an easy way for users to associate items of any kind together without having to create an attribute-based view of items. They are primarily a way to throw together groups of related items that would otherwise live in different views, providing the user with means to "shortcut or wormhole" their way around the Chandler landscape. Explicit collections are similar to Thrasks and MS Outlook's linking feature). However, collections will differ from Thrasks and linked items in a few key ways.

1. From any item, the user can see all the collections that the focal item is a member of.
2. Items are not linked to other individual items. Items can only be associated with collections.
3. Collections have an explicit order that stays the same no matter where you access the collection from.
4. Collections are automatically named, although the user can rename the collection.
5. Auto-generated collections:
   • Email threads
   • Emails where I sent this item as an attachment
   • "Message" notifications about this item
6. Notion of a default collection for every item.

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• Structure What makes an ad-hoc collection?
• Short
• Membership is short-term (not like filing an item in a project for future reference purposes)
• Replaces the notion of "linking 1 item to another" (ie. thread-like relationship) where the items are actually related to each other directly as opposed to similar to each other because they share a common attribute value.

• Rules of Interaction
• Collections can be access in any of 7 ways:

1. In the "See also" section of the Detail view: changes the view
2. In a pulldown menu access from the collection disclosure triangle in the summary table: opens in-place
3. [OI^?] As a section in the Summary table - Sectioned layout
4. As a view in the SidebarSpec: changes the view

Workflows (Floating collections in the Summary table)

• Viewing a collection
• MD on an item
• Double-disclosure triangles appear
• Members of the selected item's default collection are highlighted in a lighter color (a la Apple Mail)
• Click on disclosure triangles
• Default collection clusters around selected item
• Original selected item remains "highlighted" in some way
• User can select and browse other members of the collection
• Clicking outside of the collection will close the collection

• Possibility: If ad-hoc collections are above 10? items, we offer users the option of viewing all items in their own tab (replacing the current view)

• To switch collections, click on a different collection in the "See also" section of the selected item's Detail view OR
• Click and hold on the collection disclosure triangle and select a different collection
• Option to keep collection open

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• To see a collection of a member item (not the originally selected item), click on a collection in the member item's "See also" section.
• If the member item exists in the same view as the originally selected item, the view jumps to where the member item "lives" in that view.
• [OI] If the member item does not exist in the same view as the originally selected item, where does it go? To a view of its own?

• Adding items to a collection
• DnD one item onto a second item adds the first item to the second item's default collection.

• Hover one item over a second item will open that item's default collection AND
• Switches the detail view to reflect the second item.
• Directly place the first item in a specific place in the second item's default collection.

• To add an item to a collection while the collection is open:
• Select an item outside of the collection and DnD into the collection

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• To add an item to a different collection in the "See also" section:
• DnD item onto the collection name.
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• OPTIONAL Workflow
• Drag and hover an item over a second item to open the second item's default collection and switch the detail view to reflect the second item.
• Drag and hover first item over a different collection in the "See also" section of the second item's detail view
• Open collection in summary table switches to new collection
• Drop first item in a specific place in the new collection
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• Sharing ad-hoc collections
• The first item (row) in any ad-hoc collection is the ad-hoc collection itself (similar to how threads have a title row in Apple Mail)
• Selecting this item gives you the detail view for the ad-hoc collection where the user can
  • Label the ad-hoc collection in the "See also" area
  • Share the ad-hoc collection
  • Mark the ad-hoc collection as private
  • Set triage status for the ad-hoc collection
• Users can also share ad-hoc collections via file menus, context menus and by DnDing ad-hoc collection to the "Shared" collection in the sidebar.

• Examples of ad-hoc collections
• Email threads (auto-generated)
  • including attachments?
• Task threads (ie. dependent tasks)
• Thrasks
• Notes and Emails that are broken out into multiple items (auto-generated)
• To reply to emails (auto-generated): Does this meet the linking requirement? Not really.
• @ Context lists (auto-generated): Does this meet the linking requirement? Not really.
• Contact households?
• Sending / Sharing history? (ie. All the times you've sent/resent a Share) (auto-generated) * Not sure where to put this: If user receives an email and stamps it as an event and then sends / shares out the stamped event, the original incoming email and the subsequent outgoing event should appear in the Sending / Sharing history as 2 separate items, one incoming, the other outgoing.
• Item history? (ie. All changes to an item) (auto-generated)
• ? are tentative proposals that haven't been discussed by the Design Team

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Open Issues

#	Feature	Description
1	[IntD] DnD behavior	When you drag and drop item A from one view into another, how do you tell whether the drop target is the view itself vs. some specific item in the view?
2	[IntD] DnD behavior: When to create new collections	If you drop item A onto item B, that puts A into B's default collection, if B has one. If not, a new collection is created and becomes B's default collection. In what cases does a new collection get created for A? What collection does B get put into? The approach I want to take is to have Mimi and I work from some sketches to come up with a proposal. [Mimi] Auto-generated collections should always be new collections. Otherwise, all DnD should be put into the "Default" collection. B gets put into the same collection as A.
3	Auto-naming	What default names are set for these collections?