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The project fragmentation problem in personal information management

Published: 22 April 2006 Publication History

Abstract

The project fragmentation problem in personal information management occurs when someone who is working on a single project stores and retrieves information items relating to that project from separate format-related collections (documents, emails and favorite Web sites). This study was aimed to test empirically users' working habits in order to shed light on the project fragmentation problem. Twenty personal computer users participated in the study. Data collection tools included an interview, screen captures and a questionnaire. Results indicate that users tend to store and retrieve project-related information items based on different formats in one project folder when the interface design encourages it. However, they store and retrieve project- related information items in different folders (documents, emails and favorite Web sites) when the design encourages such fragmentation. Two types of attempts to solve the project fragmentation problem are reviewed and a new possible solution is suggested.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2006
    1353 pages
    ISBN:1595933727
    DOI:10.1145/1124772
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    Published: 22 April 2006

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    Author Tags

    1. documents
    2. email
    3. favorites
    4. folder hierarchies
    5. fragmentation
    6. integration
    7. personal information management
    8. projects

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    CHI06: CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 22 - 27, 2006
    Québec, Montréal, Canada

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    Cited By

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    • (2024)Information in the personal collections of writers and artistsJournal of Information Science10.1177/0165551522108461350:1(189-203)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
    • (2024)“I Really Need Your Help with This Work...”: A System for Navigating the Tricky Terrain of Managing Up by Leveraging One’s Motivation to Get Things DoneACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/365260331:4(1-36)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
    • (2022)Cloud Computing-Based Personal Information ManagementHandbook of Research on Technological Advances of Library and Information Science in Industry 5.010.4018/978-1-6684-4755-0.ch002(21-39)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2022
    • (2022)The role of feelings in personal information management behavior: Deleting and organizing informationJournal of Librarianship and Information Science10.1177/0961000622107935755:2(313-322)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2022
    • (2022)The Impact of Weibo Features on User’s Information Comprehension: The Mediating Role of Cognitive LoadSocial Science Computer Review10.1177/0894439322112894141:6(2010-2028)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2022
    • (2021)End-User Needs of Fragmented Databases in Higher Education Data Analysis and Decision MakingInformatics10.3390/informatics80300428:3(42)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2021
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    • (2021)Entity Recommendation for Everyday Digital TasksACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/345891928:5(1-41)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2021
    • (2021)Scraps: Enabling Mobile Capture, Contextualization, and Use of Document ResourcesProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445185(1-14)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
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