A handheld electronic device (100) includes at least one context sensor (120) and a microprocessor (204), and a user interface (104). The context sensor detects (306) either a contextual characteristic of the device (e.g., ambient light, motion of the device or proximity to or contact another object or how the user is holding the device) and generates a virtual output (310) representative of the sensed characteristic. The sensed contextual characteristic is associated with a data management function of the device and a virtual physical representation to be output in response to the execution of the data management function is determined (308). The virtual physical representation is related to the sensed contextual characteristic or the data management function. The virtual physical representation is output by a user interface of the device.