Peripheral vision offers context.
If I mark up a physical book then later flip through to see my margin notes, I’ll always see them in the context of the surrounding text. By contrast, digital annotation listings usually display only the text I highlighted, removed from context.
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The primary “unit” in such systems is a single highlight or note, but that’s not how I think. Marginalia have fuzzy boundaries, and I often think of a page’s markings as a single unit.
LiquidText is a lovely counterexample: it works hard to display annotations in context.
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In digital note systems, the UI centers on the experience of writing one note. The core operations and representations fixate on “the note you have open,” not on larger structures. I often can’t simultaneously see another note I’ve just finished writing—let alone the last four.
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Most systems barely support multiple windows, but even if I can open multiple windows, it’s awkward to arrange them into the spatial relationships I might naturally use for physical index cards. Rather than peripheral vision, it’s like I’m wearing horse blinders and mittens.
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Backlinks are a weak peripheral vision, and they help, but they’re generally about switching the one note you have open, not an effective means of sense-making across many notes. Contextual backlinks help, but if you navigate, you lose object permanence.
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If I read an old digital note, I get the unnerving sense that it’s part of some “whole” that I can’t see at all—no matter how much hypertext is involved. Working with physical notes, I’d shuffle notes around to make sense of the structure. There isn’t a digital equivalent.
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What are the best examples and design patterns of peripheral vision in software interfaces?
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just started to tinker with which seems like a step in the direction for allowing peripheral vision. Diagram and sidebars. It just got into the wild.
following this thread for more example, great topic
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Roam's certainly trying! I'm curious about approaches which maintain object permanence. Most approaches, incl Roam's, are heavy on "switching the primary focus" as a core operation. I want to see more unusual ideas! Most attempts here are so boring. Here's a weird prototype:
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Off-topic, but I'd love to see your executable strategy for writing! I started my greenfield notes system a couple months ago and articulating my entire worldview for the first time means my writing inbox is massive. I currently use a variant of Cal Newport's blog writing system.
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Too molten to publish, but hope to share something next year.