Transcript Information Behaviors That Keep Found Things Found

The Information School of the University of Washington
Keeping Found Things Found
and other challenges of Personal
Information Management
Harry Bruce, William Jones, Susan Dumais
The Challenge
The Information School of the University of Washington
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• We regularly locate,
encounter or acquire
information that we
know we will want to
use again
• We need to organize
and manage the
information that we
need to use for work,
fun, and everyday
tasks
The Information School of the University of Washington
Keeping Found Things Found
•
Studied how individuals manage information that they find or encounter and
plan to use at a later point in time
– Focused on this behavior in relation to information located or encountered on the
World Wide Web
•
Participants:
– Researchers
– Information specialists
– Managers
Keeping Study
Re-finding Study
Survey
Folders study
Selected results
The Information School of the University of Washington
The Keeping Study
• Goals
– To understand the diversity of keeping and
leaving methods that people use to manage
Web information
– To analyze the underlying function of the
observed keeping methods
The Information School of the University of Washington
Observation
• Participants (24) were asked
to pursue a work task using the
Web
– observed and video recorded
• Participants were instructed to
think aloud during the task,
and to respond to interruptions
and chance discoveries as they
normally would
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The Information School of the University of Washington
Interview
• After the observation, participants were
asked to “fill in the gaps” or to explain
certain actions
– identified other keeping/leaving methods they
might use in other situations of web use
– discussed the strengths and weaknesses of
various methods
The Information School of the University of Washington
The Re-finding Study
• Goal
– To explore the various methods
that participants used for refinding information previously
located or encountered on the
World Wide Web
• Participants
– twelve of the twenty-four
participants from the Keeping
Study
The Information School of the University of Washington
Set up
• Sample of web sites recently
visited
– obtained from the participant’s
History list
– Frequency of access data (low,
medium, high)
• Participants rate the likelihood of
revisiting each site
– 75% or higher rating participants provide a brief
description of their activities at
the site
The Information School of the University of Washington
Observation
• 3-6 months later, participants were given
cues for web sites selected from their
descriptions of use in the set-up interview
– asked if they recalled the related web site
based on the brief description of activities at
the site
– asked to return to the cued web site
The Information School of the University of Washington
Survey
• Goals
– To determine, from a larger sample of
participants, if the list of observed keeping
methods was complete and how frequently
people use each method
– To find out why certain keeping methods are
used
• Sample - 214
The Information School of the University of Washington
Folders Study
• Goal – To observe the role of folders in the
organization of project-related information
• 14 participants
– Interviews
– Snapshots of collections of information related
to selected projects
The Information School of the University of Washington
Personal Information Collection
• Our personal subset of the
larger information world
• A collection of information
sources and channels that
we as individuals have
acquired, cultivated, and
organized over time
• Where we turn first when
we need information to do
a task or pursue an
interest
The Information School of the University of Washington
Personal Information Collection
– A Mental Construct
– A Set of Things
• Content in various forms (documents, web
pages, mail, notes, calendars, address books,
etc.)
• Structures for representing and organizing
this information (folder hierarchies, piles, lists,
etc.)
• Pointers to information (people, links,
favorites, etc).
The Information School of the University of Washington
Personal Information Collection
• A set of processes and related
behavior
– Selecting
– Keeping/ leaving
– Re-finding
– Maintaining
The Information School of the University of Washington
Keeping Behavior
Occurs when an
individual identifies
information as useful
and engages in actions
to make the
information accessible
in the future
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The Information School of the University of Washington
Methods - Keeping
• Send an email to self
with URL
• Send an email to
others that contains a
web page reference
• Print out the web
page
• Save the web page
as a file
The Information School of the University of Washington
Methods - Keeping
• Paste the URL in a
document
• Add a hyperlink in a
personal web page
• Bookmark the web
page
• Write down the URL
• Copy to a “links”
toolbar
• Create a “note” in
Outlook
The Information School of the University of Washington
Leaving - do nothing - Behavior
• Occurs when the individual recognizes the
information is useful (and that it will be useful in the
future), but also that it can be located again easily
• The individual makes a conscious decision to leave
the information in situ
– For example, a regularly used website
The Information School of the University of Washington
Methods – Leaving (Do nothing)
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• Remember the URL (or remember
the first part of the URL and rely
on the browser for suggested
completion)
• Search for (find again) desired
information
• Reach information later from a
known point of access, such as a
web portal
The Information School of the University of Washington
Keeping - Leaving
• People report using on average just over 5
methods for keeping web information at
least once per week
The Information School of the University of Washington
Top seven methods*
Send email to self
36
Print out the web page
40
Do nothing to keep - access via
another website
40
Send email to others
43
Do nothing to keep - enter the
URL directly
51
Do nothing to keep - search
again to re-access
54
Make a Bookmark or Favorite
80
0
20
40
* Ranked by the proportion of participants using the method at least once per week
60
80
100
The Information School of the University of Washington
Keeping – Leaving
• Individuals often use several
keeping/leaving methods – choosing these
methods according to their functionality and
the purpose that the information kept is
likely to serve in the future
The Information School of the University of Washington
Method selection
(functionality and information use)
• Context
– Participant can establish a context for why a website was kept
• Reminding
– Keeping method reminds participant about the information
• Ease of integration
– Method helps the participant to integrate new info or new
references with ongoing projects or organizational schemes
• Communication and information sharing
– Method makes it easier to share information with others
• Ease of maintenance
– Method supports or facilitates the participant’s effort to maintain
and update his or her personal information collection
The Information School of the University of Washington
Method selection
(functionality and information use)
• Portability of information
– Participants can take information with them
• Number of access points
– Participant can access information from multiple places
• Persistence of information
– Web site content will remain relatively unchanged over
time
• Preservation of information in its current state
– Design of web site will be preserved
• Currency of information
– Information can be refreshed to reflect the most current
updates to the content
Preservation
Currency
Reminding
Ease of
integration
-
83
-
-
-
2 25
17
Email to others
-
2
-
-
-
-
- 19
7
-
5 12
21
22
-
Print-out
34
-
Ease of
maintenance
Persistence
Communication
Number of
access points
Email to self
Context
Portability
The Information School of the University of Washington
Functionality influencing a participant’s
decision to use a keeping method
-
-
- 123
-
Save as file
-
- 35 10
-
-
3
17
2
-
Paste URL in
document
-
-
-
-
- 20
4
35
15
-
Personal web site
-
9
-
-
-
-
-
8
18
-
Write down URL
-
-
-
-
-
- 13
-
5
-
The Information School of the University of Washington
Memory - Attention
• People keep masses of information that they never use large stacks of good intentions for web references, paper
documents, etc. they mean to read some day but never do
• People have information closets - especially in digital form
• People forget to use information they have kept until it is
too late
• People go to great lengths to arrange and highlight
information so that they can see the things that matter first
The Information School of the University of Washington
Fragmentation
• People complain about having too many
information organizations - for email, edocuments, paper, web references
• Some people go to great lengths to
consolidate these organizations
The Information School of the University of Washington
The Google question
• “Suppose that you could find your personal
information using a simple search (fast,
effortless to maintain, secure and private)
• Can we take away your folders?
The Information School of the University of Washington
Folder study
–Yes - 1
–No – 13
The Information School of the University of Washington
The Google question
• Why are folders so important?
–Visibility – Understanding – Folders
show the relationship between things
–Control – Being sure the files needed are in
one place
–Trust – can’t rely on search alone
The Information School of the University of Washington
We need better PIM
• As individuals
– better use of precious resources (time, money,
energy, attention) and, ultimately, a better
quality to our lives.
• For organizations,
– Short term
• employee productivity and better team work
– Longer-term
• management and leverage of employee expertise.
The Information School of the University of Washington
We need better PIM
• Progress in PIM must be made not only with
new tools and technologies but also with new
teachable information management
techniques
– education programs in PIM literacy
The Information School of the University of Washington
Next steps
A. Fragmentation
Integration
• Prototype development
– Information management and project
management go hand-in-hand
– Un-application approach
– Universal labeler; project planner
B. Exploring personal information collection(s)
(EPIC)
The Information School of the University of Washington
Personal Information Collections
•
Describe selected attributes (components, size, structures
for organization, memory and access) of personal
information collections that are used for work roles and
tasks
1. How do people decide what to include in a personal
information collection?
2. How do people organize and manage information in a
personal information collection?
3. How do people find information they need in a personal
information collection?