Method for visualizing undone operations based on changes on desktop screen

Abstract

The undo operation of graphical user interfaces is widely used. However, conventional implementations of undo have two problems: 1) users may not notice undone parts since the operation is instantaneous, and 2) it is difficult to know the undone contents if the user temporarily interrupts a work the user works on multiple operations in parallel. Although there have been several methods developed that improve undo operations, they are for specific applications. Here, we devised a visualization for undone operations that, is independent of the running applications and based on the idea that an undo operation causes display to change. Our method specifies the area affected by the undo operation by screens. We implementedseveral visualization methods including emphasizing the undone area, presenting the undone content, and notifying the user that the undone is not visible.