Can’t remember where I read it, but I recall a story about automating air traffic control, and one of the problems they encountered was that there is a lot of information being conveyed by watching people grab the little strips of information and move them around.
The state of the system is only one dimension, who’s interested in what and what they are doing is another. The claim was that humans are optimized for watching other people work, and most office automation hides all that:
You never see Snively grab the Horrocks file and open it on his desk. Anecdotally, I have seen benefits from physical cards: People might see someone grab a card and speak up “Hey, are you looking at Thermoregulating Widgets? I was talking to Phred and he said...”
This information is theoretically available when someone clicks “start” on a task, but somehow it is not as visceral as watching someone grab or move a note card.
The state of the system is only one dimension, who’s interested in what and what they are doing is another. The claim was that humans are optimized for watching other people work, and most office automation hides all that:
You never see Snively grab the Horrocks file and open it on his desk. Anecdotally, I have seen benefits from physical cards: People might see someone grab a card and speak up “Hey, are you looking at Thermoregulating Widgets? I was talking to Phred and he said...”
This information is theoretically available when someone clicks “start” on a task, but somehow it is not as visceral as watching someone grab or move a note card.