Recall Service for Productivity Apps Context Surfacing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in efficiently re-creating previous work contexts across multiple productivity applications, leading to wasted computing resources and time as they manually recall digital artifacts and interactions, which are scattered across different applications and services.
Innovation Solution
A recall service that monitors user interactions and associations between digital artifacts, using a contextual object model to identify and surface relevant digital artifacts based on operational contexts, allowing users to quickly resume their work by automatically suggesting and re-creating previous contexts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If users manually recall and re-create previous work contexts across multiple applications, then they can access previous digital artifacts, but this process wastes computing resources and time
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically monitoring and recording user interactions with digital artifacts across applications in the background. When a user switches back to a previous application or document, the system has already prepared and cached the relevant digital artifacts (emails, webpages, images, etc.) so they can be instantly retrieved and displayed without requiring manual user effort to locate or re-create the previous context.
2Reliability
If users manually search for digital content to recreate previous context, then they can find the needed artifacts, but computing resources such as processing cycles and battery power are wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively monitors and caches digital artifacts in the background before users need them, performing the resource-intensive work of tracking and storing interaction data in advance. This preliminary action ensures that when users need to access previous contexts, the artifacts are already prepared and readily available, eliminating the need for energy-consuming manual searches and ad-hoc retrieval operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system serves itself by automatically monitoring its own usage patterns and proactively caching digital artifacts without requiring user intervention. The recall service runs in the background, autonomously tracking user interactions across applications and pre-loading relevant content, thereby eliminating the need for users to manually search for or request digital artifacts, which would consume additional computing resources and battery power.
3Adaptability or versatility
If digital artifacts are scattered across different applications and services, then users can access diverse content types, but re-creation of previous context becomes difficult and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The recall service implements a universal interface that works across multiple applications and services (word processors, email clients, web browsers, etc.). It monitors and caches digital artifacts from diverse sources including emails, webpages, images, and documents, providing a unified access point that aggregates content from different applications. This multi-functional approach allows users to access previously viewed content regardless of which application it originated from, simplifying context re-creation while maintaining access to diverse content types.
Data Source
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AI summary
Non-limiting examples of the present disclosure describe surfacing a representation of digital artifacts for a user. An operation context associated with a user is identified. The operational context may correspond with an electronic document that is accessed through a productivity application. One or more of a plurality of digital artifacts may be identified based on the identified operational context. An exemplary representation of the one or more digital artifacts is surfaced through a user interface. An exemplary user interface may be a user interface of a productivity application, for example, where the electronic document is being accessed through the productivity application. In alternative examples, an exemplary user interface may be associated with a home service that is executed in association with an operating system (OS). In some instances, an operational context may change resulting in an update to an exemplary representation of digital artifacts. Other examples are also described.