The user view of file management

Abstract

The structures in which users store their files facilitate retrieval by enabling users to dedute a file's contents from its place in the organization.This study examined structures created by UNIX* users to organize their files within a hierarchical directory scheme, and examined the relation between structure and command usage.Users" difficulties in managing the complexity of a hierarchical structure limited the amount of information about files that these structures contained.Tree complexity increased in a negatively accelerating function with the number of files. Users who grouped their files into few directories arranged in shallow trees could navigate through the tree easily, but they sacrificed information: directory names were less specific, and users made more command errors.More sophisticated users created deeper trees.They were able to manage more files but also made extensive use of navigation aids.~: UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories.