Presentation given at DL 2014, International Conference on Digital Libraries, London, UK, September, 2014 ABSTRACT: The efficient management of our daily information in physical and digital information spaces is a well-known problem. Current research on personal information management (PIM) aims to understand and improve organisational and re-finding activities. We present a case study about organisational strategies in cross-media information spaces, consisting of physical as well as digital information. In contrast to existing work, we provide a unified view on organisational strategies and investigate how re-finding cues differ across the physical and digital space. We further introduce a new mixing organisational strategy which is used in addition to the well-known filing and piling strategies. Last but not least, based on the results of our study we discuss opportunities and pitfalls for future descriptive PIM research and outline some directions for future PIM system design. Paper: https://www.academia.edu/7316111/From_User_Needs_to_Opportunities_in_Personal_Information_Management_A_Case_Study_on_Organisational_Strategies_in_Cross-Media_Information_Spaces

1. 2 December 2005
From User Needs to Opportunities in
Personal Information Management
A Case Study on Organisational Strategies in Cross-Media Information Spaces
Sandra Trullemans and Beat Signer
Web & Information Systems Engineering Lab (WISE)
Department of Computer Science
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
WEB & INFORMATION
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

2. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 2
Personal Cross-Media Information
physical space digital space

3. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 3
Filing and Piling Strategies
Elements Groups
Titled Ordered Titled Ordered
Files Yes Yes ? ?
Piles ? No No ?
Malone, 1983 filing
piling
 One-dimensional order variable
filing piling

4. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 4
 Is order only determined by filing and piling?
 Is there any coherency or dependency between these
organisational strategies in digital and physical space?
 Do we use the same re-finding cues after applying an
organisational strategy in physical and digital space?
Research Questions
filing piling

5. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 5
Methodology
 Embedded multi-case case study
 2 cases (digital and physical)
 Units of analysis
 use of organisational strategies
 ease of re-finding
 use of re-finding cues
 Cross-case analysis
 Data collection
 observation (first phase)
 survey (second phase)
case 1
physical space
case 2
digital space

6. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 6
Observation
 6 academic offices
 Identification of new organisational strategies
 Compilation of valid questions for the survey
 Identification and definition of new mixing strategy

7. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 7
Mixing Strategy
Elements Groups
Titled Ordered Titled Ordered
Files Yes Yes ? ?
Piles ? No No ?
Malone, 1983

8. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 8
Online Survey
 Use of organisational strategies
 factorisation in filing, piling and mixing
 Ease of re-finding
 how easy do we re-find in a digital file system, …
 Use of re-finding cues
 use of folder labels, …
 Open-ended questions
 tools for re-finding

9. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 9
Data Analysis
 Participants
 170 respondents
 international academic population
 Ordinal data on a 5-point Likert scale
 Normal distribution not guaranteed
 Correlations determined by Spearman’s rho (p<0.05)
 Differences in factors by Wilcoxon signed-rank test (p<0.05)

10. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 10
General Use of Organisational Strategies
 Significant use of the mixing strategy
 Less filing than piling and mixing

11. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 11
Use of Strategies Across Spaces
 No difference between digital and physical space
 No correlation between strategies
BUT…

12. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 12
What do the Results Tell Us?
 Piles and mixtures are most frequently used
 Use of extra filing tools
 digital file systems: “Never happy with the used tools”
 physical file cabinets
- post-it notes
- archive cards
- digital index
- …
 Lack of insights about the mixing strategy
 Users have individual cross-media strategies

13. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 13
Ease of Re-finding
 But significantly more piling than filing!

14. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 14
Re-finding Cues
Context cue Spatial cue Time cue
Physical space Filing   
Piling  
Mixing  
Digital space Filing 
Piling 
Mixing  

15. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 15
Filing Re-finding Cues
 Digital space
 Physical space
context cue
context cue spatial cue time cue

16. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 16
Directions for PIM System Design
 Provide suitable augmentations for each strategy
 Support appropriate re-finding cues in the right strategy
 Support for cross-media re-finding activities
 include physical space
 cross-media annotations

17. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 17
Conclusion
 New insights about organisational landscape
 Piles and mixtures more frequently used than filing
 Re-finding is different for each strategy in digital and
physical space
 Directions for future PIM system design

18. September 9, 2014 Sandra Trullemans, strullem@vub.ac.be 18
filing piling
 Mixing as a third organisational strategy
 It is normal to use paper and to be “unorganised”
 Order cannot be expressed as a one-dimensional variable
 Organisational strategies should be augmented with
support for the right re-finding cues
 Exploration of cross-media organising and
re-finding solutions
Give Away Message
