Metadata-Derived Keywords for Effective Navigation and Access in Personal File Hierarchies

Computer systems provide users with abilities to create, organize, store and access information. Most of this information is in the form of documents in files organized in the hierarchical folder structures provided by operating systems. Operating systemprovided access is mainly through navigation of the file hierarchy, and through keyword search. An investigation with regard to access and utilization of these documents revealed a need to reconsider these navigation methods. An improved method of access to these documents is proposed based on previous effective metadata use in search system-retrieval and annotation systems. The underlying organization is based on a model for navigation whereby documents are represented using index terms and associations between them exposed to create a linked, similarity-based navigation structure. Evaluation of an interface instantiating this approach suggests it can reduce the user’s cognitive load and enable efficient and effective access and navigation of the file hierarchy. This is enabled by provision of keywords as reminders for discovering and associating documents.