The continuing trend toward greater processing power, larger storage, and in particular increased display surface by using multiple monitor supports increased multi-tasking by the computer user. The concomitant increase in desktop complexity has the potential to push the overhead of window management to frustrating and counterproductive new levels. It is difficult to adequately design for multiple monitor systems without understanding how multiple monitor users differ from, or are similar to, single monitor users. Therefore, we deployed a tool to a group of single monitor and multiple monitor users to log window management activity. Analysis of the data collected from this tool revealed that usage of interaction components may change with an increase in number of monitors, and window visibility can be a useful measure of user display space management activity, especially for multiple monitor users. The results from this analysis begin to fill a gap in research about real-world window management practices.

Recent research and technology advances indicate that multiple monitor systems are likely to become commonplace in the near future. An important property of such systems is that the physical separation of the display prompts users to place windows entirely within monitors, and thus does not fully alleviate the problem of managing windows on smaller monitors. Another finding about multiple monitor systems is that an additional monitor often holds windows that help the user maintain awareness rather than support interaction with information, but that multiple monitor users tend not to have many more windows visible than their single-monitor counterparts. We therefore present a window shrinking operation that specifically intends to help users display a window's relevant information. The operation should help to create smaller windows to manage, helping the "small monitor management" problem and targeting use of awareness windows on multiple monitor systems.

Abstract. Snip is a tool that allows a user to constrict the view onto any window. We report on a controlled study of the snip tool in the context of a multiple-monitor environment. The study was designed based on observed user behavior in a field study of multiple-monitor users' snipping habits. Analysis provided results that indicate that users can expect to reference information approximately 15% to 30% faster from snipped windows than from non-snipped windows. Further, users need to pay only a small overhead cost to perform the snip operation. The result extends to other recently presented region-based interface tools that aim to assist multiple-monitor users interact effectively and employ additional monitor space for information-referencing activities.

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