Ask HN: Tech for preserving context?
Context switching has been talked about for a long time as a major problem, but I think its getting much worse because of the nature of contemporary technology. Especially web browsing, and the paradigm of using multiple apps in day life and work. Previous technologies, like pen and paper, maintained context. Even if you switched topic while writing, or started drawing, your previous work was just above the new one, or on the previous page. Similarly, working in a shell also preserves some history and context for your actions. If we look at video games, they invest a lot of design work in preserving the context. Any action you take effects a unified game world and status bars tells you about the important parameters in this context.
Nothing like that exists when using apps and when browsing the Web. Each website or app is usually oblivious to other sites or apps and works by its own set of rules, and the system as a whole, the browser or the operating system does very little to contextualise your activity. On the browser you have piles of tabs, and a huge drawer of history, and apps flood you with messy notifications. It's like working in a messy garage trying to find the tools, or having an archive with many boxes full of papers. But this garage is huge and getting more massive and complex every year.
My question is, are there apps or technologies for keeping your context while switching between different apps and data sources? One example is on fed.wiki.org where the wiki keeps your previously viewed article in sight while you read the current one.