File management with hierarchical folders and tags

ABSTRACT

Hierarchical folders have been widely used for managing digital files. Previous research has revealed problems with them. Users frequently have to turn to desktop search to re-find files, even if they thought they had saved them in a memorable place. Tagging may have the potential to improve information navigation and organization. This research in progress aims at exploring the possibility of incorporating tagging into the hierarchical folder structure for file management, especially for the process of file organization and file re-finding. This work will provide design implications for future file management tools.

REFERENCES

• 1: Olle Bälter, Keystroke level analysis of email message organization, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.105-112, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/332040.332413]
• 2: Deborah K. Barreau, Context as a factor in personal information management systems, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, v.46 n.5, p.327-339, June 1995 [doi>10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199506)46:5<327::AID-ASI4>3.0.CO;2-C]
• 3: Deborah Barreau , Bonnie A. Nardi, Finding and reminding: file organization from the desktop, ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, v.27 n.3, p.39-43, July 1995 [doi>10.1145/221296.221307]
• 4: Bloehdorn, S., Gorlitz, O., Schenk, S., Volkel, M. TagFS -- Tag Semantics for Hierarchical File Systems. In Pro. The 6th International Conference on Knowledge Management (I--KNOW 06).
• 5: Richard Boardman , M. Angela Sasse, "Stuff goes into the computer and doesn't come out": a cross-tool study of personal information management, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.583-590, April 24-29, 2004, Vienna, Austria [doi>10.1145/985692.985766]
• 6: Olha Bondarenko , Ruud Janssen, Documents at Hand: Learning from Paper to Improve Digital Technologies, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 02-07, 2005, Portland, Oregon, USA [doi>10.1145/1054972.1054990]
• 7: Kipp, M E. I. and Campbell, D. G. Patterns and Inconsistencies in Collaborative Tagging Systems: An Examination of Tagging Practices. In Pro. Annual General Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (2006).
• 8: Lansdale, M. The psychology of personal information management. Applied Ergonomics, 19, 1 (1988), 55--66.
• 9: Thomas W. Malone, How do people organize their desks?: Implications for the design of office information systems, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.1 n.1, p.99-112, Jan. 1983 [doi>10.1145/357423.357430]
• 10: Pak, R., Pautz, S., and Iden R. Information Organization and Retrieval: A Comparison of Taxonomical and Tagging Systems. Cognitive Technology (2007), 12 (1), 31--44.
• 11: Quan, D., Bakshi, K., Huynh, D., and Karger, D.R. User interfaces for supporting multiple categorization. In Pro. Interact (2003).
• 12: Sinha, R. A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging. http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging--cognitive.html.
• 13: Steve Whittaker , Candace Sidner, Email overload: exploring personal information management of email, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: common ground, p.276-283, April 13-18, 1996, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada [doi>10.1145/238386.238530]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Experimentation

Keywords:
file management, file organization, file re-finding, tagging