User Interfaces for Supporting Multiple Categorization.

Abstract

As the amount of information stored on and accessed by computer has increased over the past twenty years, the tools available for organizing and retrieving such information have become outdated. The folder paradigm has dominated existing user interfaces as the primary mechanism for organizing information for day-to-day use. This paradigm encourages many-to-one placement of documents into strictly hierarchical containers. In this paper we examine an alternative organization and navigation mechanism that promotes membership in multiple overlapping categories (as opposed to storage containment). In particular, we explore the user interface consequences of multiple categorization support being made conveniently available from within Web browsers. We have carried out user studies providing evidence that compared to the folder paradigm, multiple categorization not only improves organization and retrieval times but also matches more closely with the way users naturally think about organizing their information.