Don't take my folders away!

Abstract

A study explores the way people organize information in support of projects ("teach a course", "plan a wedding", etc.). The folder structures to organize project information -especially electronic documents and other filesfrequently resembled a "divide and conquer" problem decomposition with subfolders corresponding to major components (subprojects) of the project. Folders were clearly more than simply a means to one end: Organizing for later retrieval. Folders were information in their own right -representing, for example, a person's evolving understanding of a project and its components. Unfortunately, folders are often "overloaded" with information. For example, folders sometimes included leading characters to force an ordering ("aa", "zz"). And folder hierarchies frequently reflected a tension between organizing information for current use vs. repeated re-use.

The Function and Future of the Folder

“…The duration and depth of engagement gives confidence as to the internal validity of the findings, but the number of participants remains relatively small, and though consistent with other similar studies in PIM literature (e.g. Alvarado et al, 2003;Bellotti et al, 2003;González and Mark, 2004;Jones et al, 2005) it cannot give external validity to the findings. The sample was sufficiently large to capture and describe in detail a great diversity of folder use, but this cannot be taken to represent a complete spectrum of possible uses and behaviours.…”

“…Consistent with previous work, the study showed that folders could remind participants of past organizational decisions and of necessary action in the present (Barreau and Nardi, 1995). Study participants created folders that reflected their understanding and intentions for activity, as described by Jones et al (2005Jones et al ( , 2006 and these played a part in planning and managing activity. The study also shows the value that representations of folder structures can bring to information work, and the potential for folders to shape and integrate with tasks and the processes of information work more generally.…”

“…Subsequent work has investigated folder use within desktop computer work environments around files and file systems (e.g. Barreau and Nardi, 1995;Bergman et al, 2010;Dourish et al, 1999;Jones et al, 2005;Teevan et al, 2004), email messages (e.g. Bellotti et al, 2003;Ducheneaut and Bellotti, 2001;Whittaker and Sidner, 1996;Whittaker et al, 2011) and web bookmarks (Abrams et al, 1998;Boardman and Sasse, 2004).…”

“…In addition to reminding of specific actions and specific documents, folders can also provide contextual information relating to activities and tasks. Jones et al describe individuals creating folder structures to decompose problems or projects into discrete categories for information items (Jones et al, 2005(Jones et al, , 2006. While such folders might not contain information items when first created their presence as a placeholder offers valuable activity-related information in itself.…”

“…On the other hand, folders are strongly valued by those who use them and have been shown to prompt action (Barreau and Nardi, 1995), lighten the load of accessing files (Teevan et al, 2004), and have a role in breaking down problems and planning work (Jones et al, 2005). When presented with increasingly powerful search tools, individuals appear reticent to relinquish folders as a means for accessing their own information, even as search has become the de facto means of accessing shared digital information (Barreau and Nardi, 1995;Bergman et al, 2008a,b;Boardman and Sasse, 2004;Jones et al, 2005;Teevan et al, 2004).…”