Development of an Improvised PIM-Integration Design Prototype for Organizational Efficiency

Personal Information Management (PIM) describes the acquisition, organization, and
retrieval of information by an individual computer user. Studies have shown that many users struggle to
manage the volume and diversity of information that they accumulate. Much design activity has been
aimed at improving integration between different PIM tools, such as file and email managers. However,
in terms of making a systematic contribution to HCI knowledge, much of this cross-tool design can be
criticized for a lack of empirical grounding and evaluation.
The research described in this thesis employs a user-centered design methodology to deepen
understanding of PIM, and in particular to provide guidance for PIM-integration design. The research is
grounded in an exploratory study of file, email and bookmark management, which is differentiated from
previous studies by its cross-tool nature. The study offers several contributions including observations
of participants’ multiple organizing strategies – in both tool-specific and cross-tool contexts. Also,
many participants had significant numbers of over-lapping folders that appeared in multiple tool
contexts. This finding informs the design of Workspace Mirror, a novel PIM-integration prototype,
which allows a user to mirror changes between their file, email and bookmark folders.
The final stage of the research is a dual-purpose field study, aimed evaluating Workspace Mirror, and investigating PIM behaviour over time. Participant feedback indicates that mirroring is more appropriate
for top-level folders, and illuminates a trade-off between organizational consistency and organizational flexibility. The study also reveals the incremental nature of changes in organizing strategy, and highlights the supporting nature of PIM. These and other empirical findings are used to improve previous descriptive models of PIM behaviour. Furthermore, a number of design and methodological
guidelines are developed. In particular, the authors emphasize the importance of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of PIM designs from both tool-specific and cross-tool perspectives.