FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW
A new way to organize and interact with the desktop.
OpenWorkspace brings together two complementary approaches to desktop work:
Activity-centric organization keeps related work together.
Focus + context structures primary and supporting content within it.
ORGANIZATION
The Workspace
What belongs together
Organizes work around the objective.
Application windows, browser tabs, and layout become part of one persistent task-level object that can be saved and reopened.
INTERACTION
FocalContextual™
How attention is spatially structured
Structures space around attention.
Focal Panels reserve a region for primary content while supporting information remains visible and available in the surrounding context.
ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
Workspaces
Persistent arrangements of work
- WHAT IT IS
- A unit of work that represents the objectiveA Workspace is the complete working state associated with a task or topic, including its applications, content, spatial relationships, and desktop environment.
- WHY IT MATTERS
- The work—not the application—becomes the organizing unitWorkspaces remove the need to reconstruct a task from memory by preserving what belongs to it, where each piece is, and how the pieces fit together.
- HOW IT BEHAVES
- Compose
- Capture
- Resume
- Revise
The Workspace lifecycle
- 1
Compose
Assemble the applications, tabs, and files needed for a task into a working arrangement.
- 2
Capture
Save the participating elements and their arrangement as a named workspace.
- 3
Resume
Open the workspace to restore that working arrangement when you return to the task.
- 4
Revise
Add or remove elements, adjust the arrangement, then update the workspace as the task evolves.
For example
Quarterly planning
- Applications
- Excel · PowerPoint · Browser
- Working material
- Budget · Forecast · Presentation · Research tabs
- Desktop arrangement
- The windows, supported tabs, and layout used to work across them
SPATIAL MODEL
FocalContextual
Structures the desktop around focus and context
- WHAT IT IS
- A method for managing windows
- WHY IT MATTERS
- Primary content can take priority
while supporting context remains in view. - HOW IT BEHAVES
- Content can move
into and out of focus
FocalContextual is defined by Focal Panels.
One or more Focal Panels define the Focal Region, even when a panel is empty. The Contextual Region is the desktop surface outside those boundaries; supporting windows can remain visible there while focal content changes.
How it behaves
Focus can shift without losing context
Surrounding windows stay visible and organized as different content takes priority.
- 1
Establish
Use Focal Panels to define a stable region for primary content.
- 2
Focus
Snap the content currently requiring attention into a focal panel.
- 3
Context
Keep supporting windows visible in the surrounding space.
- 4
Shift
Move content into or out of focus as attention changes.
For example
- Primary content
- Presentation
- Budget model
- Supporting context
- Forecast
- Project plan
- Prior-quarter results
What FocalContextual is—and is not
FocalContextual is a window-management method, not a window-tiling scheme.
Conventional tiling mainly allocates space among windows. FocalContextual establishes a Focal Region from user-defined Focal Panels—explicit placement targets that can remain empty—and a surrounding Contextual Region. Windows can move between those roles while the Workspace remains intact. An ordinary arrangement can look similar without reproducing the panel and region interaction model.
Compare FocalContextual and conventional window tiling →WHAT THE FRAMEWORK BRINGS TO THE DESKTOP
A new primitive, and a familiar way to interact with it.
The Workspace preserves what belongs together. FocalContextual adds an optional way to structure that information while you work.
ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
Workspaces
The work becomes the organizing unit.
Everything associated with that work stays together across sessions.
SPATIAL INTERACTION MODEL
FocalContextual™
Focal content in panels. Context around them.
Primary work stays prominent while supporting information remains visible around it.
FAQ
A Workspace records supported application windows, browser tabs, open resources such as files and URLs, their placement, and selected settings. It does not preserve every live application state or unsaved edit. See the Technical Reference for the saved-state model and Capabilities for current support.
Virtual desktops provide surfaces for grouping and switching windows. A Workspace records supported task-related resources and their arrangement for later reconstruction. The Technical Reference explains the distinction and restoration limits.
No. OpenWorkspace does not use AI.
The problem OpenWorkspace solves does not require inference. A workspace is a known working state: specific apps, files, tabs, threads, and their arrangement. Restoring it follows recorded user state rather than a model deciding what it thinks belongs there. Geometry, snapping, positioning, and reconstruction can still use deterministic algorithms. Actual results depend on supported applications, available resources, and the current environment.
AI and OpenWorkspace are therefore complementary. AI can create, analyze, and transform the work. OpenWorkspace preserves the supported environment around that work so you can reconstruct the recorded arrangement.
Focal Panels persist as placement targets that define the Focal Region; the Contextual Region is the remaining desktop space. Windows can move between these spatial roles. Similar geometry alone does not reproduce that behavior. See the side-by-side comparison and the focus-change example.
No. It can be used on a laptop display or across multiple monitors; it is most useful when there is enough space to keep primary work and supporting context visible together. See the spatial model for the region definition across displays and Capabilities for current platform support.
Parts of it have. Activity-centric computing has been studied for decades, including systems designed to organize files, windows, and other resources around the activity they support.
For most of the desktop’s history, however, there wasn’t much need to save and restore an entire working state. People worked with a relatively small number of applications and documents, and the desktop’s manual model was sufficient. The web and cloud changed that, dramatically increasing the amount of information involved in everyday work.Go deeper: Automating the Desktop →
Focus + context has a similarly established history in HCI research, exploring how primary information can remain in focus without losing access to the surrounding context.
Display technology took a different path. Multiple monitors became the practical way to create more working space and remained good enough for decades. Now, as displays have grown larger and higher-resolution, it is possible to rethink that model—not by adding more screens, but by making better use of the space itself.Go deeper: Expanding the Desktop →
OpenWorkspace brings those two established lines of thinking together for the modern desktop: Workspaces make activity-centered organization persistent, while FocalContextual applies focus + context to the working space itself.
Add Workspaces and FocalContextual™ to your desktop.
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