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
Workspaces
What belongs together
Organizes work around the task.
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.
Primary content occupies a focal region while supporting information remains visible and available in the surrounding context.
ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
Workspaces
Persistent arrangements of work
- WHAT IT IS
- A task or topic and everything that goes with it
- WHY IT MATTERS
- The task becomes the organizing unit
- HOW IT BEHAVES
- Compose → Capture → Resume → Revise
What it is
A Workspace is the complete working state associated with a task or topic, including its applications, content, spatial relationships, and desktop environment.
Why it matters
Workspaces 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
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
What it is
FocalContextual is defined by building blocks called Focal Panels. One or more panels form the focal region for primary content, while supporting windows remain visible and available around it.
Why it matters
Instead of treating open windows as spatial peers, FocalContextual distinguishes what is primary now from what remains visible as supporting context.
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 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
- Defines what belongs to the task
- Persists the task-level object across sessions
- Relates applications, windows, material, and layout
SPATIAL INTERACTION MODEL
FocalContextual
- Defines what is focal versus contextual
- Structures attention within the working session
- Maintains a focus-and-context relationship
FAQ
A Workspace saves participating application windows, supported browser tabs, files or URLs where supported, and the desktop arrangement that relates them. Coverage varies by application and system configuration; the Capabilities page documents current support and limitations.
Multiple desktops give you more places to put windows. A Workspace lets you save the whole setup.
The multiple desktops available in Windows and macOS, sometimes referred to as virtual desktops or Spaces, give you separate surfaces for organizing and switching between windows that are currently open.
A Workspace is different: it represents a persistent collection of apps, files, browser tabs, threads, and their arrangement. Because that state exists independently of the current desktop, it can be closed and restored later, carried between supported systems or devices, shared, scheduled, or even automated.
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 calls for deterministic behavior—the same workspace should restore the same way each time—not a model deciding what it thinks belongs there.
AI and OpenWorkspace are therefore complementary. AI can create, analyze, and transform the work. OpenWorkspace preserves the environment around that work so you can return to it exactly where you left off.
No. FocalContextual can flex across practical single- or multi-monitor arrangements, including a laptop display. It is most useful where enough screen space is available to keep primary work and supporting context visible together.
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 followed a different path. Multiple monitors became the practical way to create more working space and remained good enough for decades. As larger, higher-resolution displays have become more practical, there is now an opportunity to structure that space differently rather than simply adding more screens.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.