From piles to tiles: designing for overview and control in case handling systems

Abstract

Poor overview and control of workload in electronic case handling systems is a potential health risk factor which affects the users. Case handling systems must therefore be designed to give the users a better overview and maximum control over their workload. In an earlier study, we developed a prototype interface for managing cases, based on the piles metaphor. This paper introduces a second prototype, which is designed to incorporate the findings of an evaluation of the piles metaphor prototype. In this second prototype cases are visualized as “tiles”, reflecting the number and complexity of the cases. This paper also describes some the results of the evaluation of the tiles prototype.