INFO 447 - L10 - February 4, 2005
Notes by: Serim, Prins, Egaas, Fortier, Podhola

What is Sideshow?
    - A sidebar that's always visible
    - Goal is to help people stay aware of information via peripheral awareness
    - really ugly

The Sideshow Approach
    - Sidebar full of "tickets"
    - More info provided on hover
    - Go to source on double-click
    - Uses principle of progressive disclosure (more user action, more info)

Outlook Integration
    - Calendar ticket shows how long you have until your next meeting
    - Outlook Mail Folder tickets provide easy access to messages in folders
    - When new mail arrives, a small windows fades in

Working with Buddies
    - Messenger ticket shows how many buddies are online/away/offline
    - Most important buddies can be dragged to sidebar as individual tickets
        * On hover, you can see more information about their status/calendar

Grouping and Scrolling
    - Tickets are orgaized into groups, which can be collapsed
    - Hover over collapsed groups to see inside
    - Sidebar scrolls when full

* Field Deployment Results *

Deployment at Microsoft
    - Made available January 2001
    - As of Feb 2002: 13,000+ installs and 7000+ dailys users
    - 75+ tickets written

Survey Methodology
    - August 2001
    - 860 current users, 309 responses
    - 698 former users, 178 responses (26%)kno
    - All Microsoft employees

Why use Sideshow?
    1. Makes it easy to work with my calendar and email
    2. Other
    3. Love a particular ticket
    4. It's fun

Why stop using Sideshow?
    - 1. Too buggy, not stable enough
    - 2. Other reasons
    - 3. Not useful enough

Screen Space
    - Most people agreed that it was worth giving up screen space for Sideshow
    - Only 13% enabled the auto-hide feature
    - Average sidebar width: 7.3%

Deployment Strategies
    - Iterative design approach!
        > Released initial versions
        > Solicited user feedback
        > Redesigned according to feedback
    - New release every 12.4 calendar days for 9 months
    - Auto update mechanism
    - Constant dialog with user community, excellent customer service
        > 4.6 feedback messages received per day
        > Positive feedback cycle, engages user community

Series of Events
    - Jul 2001: Start of MSN Dashboard work. Ships Oct 24, 2002.
    - Dec 2001: Start of Longhorn sidebar work. Publicy announced Oct 2004.
        > Massive Longhorn reset, sidebar cut.

Product Transfer Lessons
    - Field studies superb for getting mind share
    - External factors can kill your ideas
    - Once public, your idea may be copies very quickly by external developers
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