What is a content item?

Since we are only discussing end-user experience in these documents, all mentions of "item" refer to content items, not repository items.

A content item is an item of information that the end-user interacts with. There are 2 types of content items: Processing items and Contacts.

Processing items are items that have a lifecycle. They are born, they are kept around for a while, they are tucked away somewhere, brought back into the limelight and then stored away in the attic. Eventually, they may even be packed off to even more remote mini-storage lots or gotten rid of altogether.

Examples of such items are Notes (the most basic kind of item), Communications (messages, conversations, records of verbal communications), Tasks, Calendar events and Resources (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc).

The other type of item, Contacts plays more of a supporting role. "Who" is involved is orthogonal to "What" they're involved in. Contacts aren't processed. The are born and they stick around waiting to be looked up or referred to. They don't generate tasks for you to do or create appointments for you to keep. Contacts are passive. They're happy to just be.

Processing items and Contacts may be very different types of information, but they are closely bound to each other by item to item, bi-directional links so that it is will always be easy to see BOTH "Who" is involved in "What" AND "What" things "Who" involved in.

Different kinds of Processing items

The various Kinds of Processing items are very closely related and can actually combine to form hybrid items through a process known as Stamping.

The basic Processing item is the Note. All

Communications, Tasks, Events, and Resources (CTER) can be thought of first as Kinds of Processing items and second as aspects of a single Processing item. CTER are the basic building blocks of the Processing item and any Processing item can have 1 or more aspects.

Choosing the right mental model
There are a few different reasons why we've decided to take on this "mutating" approach to Processing items. First, we believe that it more closely maps to the way humans think about their information. CTER are just characteristics of the simplest kind of information: the Note in the same way that sex organs, age, ethnicity, and nationality are characteristic of the basic notion of human.

Current software applications erect high walls between CTCeR, treating each not only as a distinctly separate and immutable kind of item, segregated by data model distinctions inaccessible to the user. They oftentimes segregate CTCeR by application as well.

This is most often a case of UI design being dictated by technology and implementation. CTCeR require very different technologies: different protocols for transport, different data models, different feature sets. From an engineering standpoint, they're as different as Zebras and Mice. From a user's standpoint, more often than not, Zebras can sometimes turn into Mice.

Consider the following use cases:

[USE CASES]

-- MimiYin - 28 Jul 2004