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Reviewing/editing past notes
Why do the task: ? Users might need to revisit their notes for two reasons: either to re-read their notes in order to recall or review the information contained in them, or to modify their notes in order to correct errors or add new information.
What does the user need to know or have: ? In order to do either of these tasks, the user must have the notes they wish to review or revise readily available. If the user is adding new information to the notes, they must have all of the information they are adding at hand. They must also be able to physically insert the information: simple with digital documents, but this might require inserting pages or crossing out text for paper notes. As for reviewing, if a user is looking for certain information in the notes instead of re-reading everything, the user must know how to identify the thing they are looking for. An example might be a user who is looking for an equation that's needed to solve a pset problem: if equations are easy to pick out from the surrounding notes, this task will be much more efficient. Search capabilities in general make computer notes more suited for review than paper notes, as do organizational concepts such as tags and folder hierarchies that would be difficult to replicate for people whose system involves one notebook per class, for instance.
Where is the task performed? This task might be performed anywhere, although it might be more likely to be performed in areas used for studying, such as a student's dorm room desk, or a library. Reviewing notes on a computer or on paper would not be problematic in either situation. However, there are situations where it might be difficult to spread out a lot of paper notes for review. Likewise, there are situations where you might not be able to access notes taken on a computer. Any notes stored online obviously require an internet connection, for example. Neither of these situations should apply to common cases.
How often is the task performed? The frequency with which existing notes are modified would depend on the subject of the notes: for instance, notes on a current event might be updated to reflect new developments, whereas notes on a historical event are unlikely to be modified as much. Review of notes tends to happen in specific situations such as looking up information that is needed for a pset, reviewing all notes in preparation for a test.
What are the time or resource constraints? The logistics of reviewing notes (locating notes, locating the relevant section in the notes) should not add much to the time necessary for absorbing the information itself. Students told us that they already do not allocate sufficient time to study for tests, so any solution that added unnecessary overhead would not be favored.
How is the task learned? On paper, reviewing and modifying notes is learned intuitively, or by watching others at an early age. On a computer, the tools necessary to review or modify notes should be easy to learn from exploring the interface, or from familiarity with external software metaphors.
What can go wrong? Modification of existing notes has the same pitfalls as creating new notes. Review of notes will not be successful if it is impossible to find the parts of the notes you wish to review.
Who else is involved in the task? People might wish to review and/or modify notes taken by others.