Abstract
During information foraging, knowledge workers iteratively seek, filter, read, and extract information. When using multiple information sources and different applications for information processing, re-examination of activities for validation of previous decisions or re-discovery of previously used information sources is challenging. In this paper, we present a novel representation of cross-application histories to support recall of past operations and re-discovery of information resources. Our graphical history consists of a cross-scale visualization combining an overview node-link diagram of used desktop resources with nested (animated) snapshot sequences, based on a recording of the visual screen output during the users' desktop work. This representation makes key elements of the users' tasks visually stand out, while exploiting the power of visual memory to recover subtle details of their activities. In a preliminary study, users found our graphical history helpful to recall details of an information foraging task and commented positively on the ability to expand overview nodes into snapshot and video sequences.