Using Hierarchical Folders and Tags for File Management A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Shanshan Ma in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2010 © Copyright 2010 Shanshan Ma. All Rights Reserved. ii Dedications This dissertation is dedicated to my mother. iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor Dr. Susan Wiedenbeck. She encouraged me when I had struggles. She inspired me when I had doubts. The dissertation is nowhere to be found if it had not been for our weekly meetings and numerous discussions. I’m in great debts to all the time and effort that she spent with me in this journey. Thank you to my dissertation committee members, Dr. Michael Atwood, Dr. Xia Lin, Dr. Denise Agosto, and Dr. Deborah Barreau, who have guided me and supported me in the research. The insights and critiques from the committee are invaluable in the writing of this dissertation. I am grateful to my family who love me unconditionally. Thank you my mother for teaching me to be a strong person. Thank you my father and my brother for always being there for me. I would like to thank the iSchool at Drexel University for your generosity in supporting my study and research, for your faculty and staff members who I always had fun to work with, and for the alumni garden that is beautiful all year round. Thank you my friends in Philadelphia and my peer Ph.D. students in the iSchool at Drexel University. Those weekdays and weekends that we spent together contributed visibly and invisibly to the completion of my dissertation. A special thanks to Marylin Huff’s help in recruiting participants for my research. I would also like to acknowledge the help from all the Drexel students who participated in my research. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................................ix Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................. x Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 The Research of Personal Information Management (PIM) ................................................................. 3 2.2 File Management with Hierarchical Folders ......................................................................................... 5 2.2.1 The Concept of File, Folder, and File Management ..................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Organizing Files with Hierarchical Folders.................................................................................. 6 2.2.3 Re-finding Files with Hierarchical Folders .................................................................................. 7 2.2.4 The Role of Memory in File Organization and File Re-finding ................................................... 7 2.3 Hierarchical Folders: What Goes Wrong? ............................................................................................ 8 2.3.1 Categorization Ambiguity and Cognitive Difficulty .................................................................... 8 2.3.2 Deep Hierarchy Makes Files Invisible ......................................................................................... 8 2.3.3 Lack of Contextual Reminding Functions .................................................................................... 9 2.3.4 Lack of Regrouping and Restructuring Capabilities .................................................................... 9 2.4 Solutions for Better File Management .................................................................................................. 9 2.4.1 Desktop Search ............................................................................................................................. 9 2.4.2 Beyond Search ........................................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Tagging ............................................................................................................................................... 11 2.5.1 Social Tagging ........................................................................................................................... 11 2.5.2 Using Tagging for File Management ......................................................................................... 12 Chapter 3: Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Participants .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2 Materials ............................................................................................................................................. 15 3.2.1 Zotero ......................................................................................................................................... 15 v 3.2.2 Tutorial ....................................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.3 Article Collection ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.4 MORAE ..................................................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Experimental Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 19 3.3.1 Pre-task Questionnaire ............................................................................................................... 20 3.3.2 Tutorial ....................................................................................................................................... 20 3.3.3 Experimental Session 1: File Organization ................................................................................ 20 3.3.4 Post-task Questionnaire 1 ........................................................................................................... 21 3.3.5 Experimental Session 2: File Re-finding .................................................................................... 21 3.3.6 Post-task Questionnaire 2 ........................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 4: Quantitative Data Analysis, Results and Discussion .......................................................................... 24 4.1 How Were the Three Groups Different in the File Organization Session? ......................................... 24 4.1.1 File Organization Time .............................................................................................................. 24 4.1.2 Organization Scheme: Number of Folders and Tags Created .................................................... 31 4.2 How Were the Three Groups Different in the File Re-finding Session? ............................................. 35 4.2.1 File Re-finding Time .................................................................................................................. 35 4.2.2 Answer Correctness .................................................................................................................... 36 4.2.3 Number of Mouse Clicks ........................................................................................................... 37 4.3 How Were the Three Groups Different in User Perception? .............................................................. 44 4.3.1 User Perception in the File Organization Session ...................................................................... 44 4.3.2 User Perception in the File Re-finding Session .......................................................................... 46 Chapter 5: Qualitative Discussion on File Organization and File Re-finding ...................................................... 49 5.1 Organizing Files with Folders and Tags ............................................................................................. 49 5.1.1 Previous Models on Tagging and Categorizing ......................................................................... 49 5.1.2 Different Organization Strategies in Creating Folders and Tags ................................................ 49 5.1.3 Single-word and Multi-word in Folder Names and Tag Names ................................................. 54 5.1.4 Folder Names, Tag Names and the Original Article Text .......................................................... 54 vi 5.1.5 Participants’ Feedback from the Questionnaires ........................................................................ 55 5.1.6 Conclusion on File Organization Observation ........................................................................... 56 5.2 Re-finding Files with Folders and Tags .............................................................................................