Understanding the micronote lifecycle

People frequently write messages to themselves. These informal, hurried personal jottings serve as temporary storage for notable information as well as reminders for future action. Many mobile technologies have been designed specifically to support this ubiquitous behavior; however, adoption has been universally problematic. Despite its clear utility, the process of taking micronotes stubbornly resists computing support. This field study examines the lifecycles of the canonical micronote forms (immediate use, temporary storage, and prospective memory aid), pinpointing the behaviors that are mismatched with current mobile support. Implications for improving the design of these systems are presented, culminating in a vision for integrated paper-digital micronote systems. This shifts the development focus away from trying to support the entire micronote lifecycle, emphasizing instead the different behaviors best supported by the different technologies.