Haystack
A user interface and an Information Retrieval system for the average computer user.Slogans from Overview:
- Information in One Place
- Right Click on Anything
- Work with Information, Not Programs
- Drag and Drop
- E-mail and Instant Messaging Together at Last
- Personal Digital Library
Excerpts from Design Principles:
Haystack is a system designed to improve the way people manage all the information they work with on a day to day basis. Haystack exhibits a number of improvements over current information management approaches:
- Genericity. Haystack incorporates and exposes all types of information in a single, coherent manner. [..]
- Flexibility. The data types Haystack understands are not hard-wired; any additional types of information that a user wants to work with can be easily incorporated. [..]
- User-Object Orientedness. Haystack breaks down the artificial barriers created by giving distinct applications responsibility for different data types. Instead, Haystack attempts to match a user’s own focus on objects in view and what can be done with them. [..]
The breaking down of application barriers is very useful. [..]