TY - GEN
T1 - It's not that important
T2 - 27th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2009
AU - Bergmant, Ofer
AU - Tucker, Simon
AU - Beyth-Marom, Ruth
AU - Cutrell, Edward
AU - Whittaker, Steve
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Users find it hard to delete unimportant personal information which often results in cluttered workspaces. We present a full design cycle for GrayArea, a novel interface that allows users to demote unimportant files by dragging them to a gray area at the bottom of their file folders. Demotion is an intermediate option between keeping and deleting. It combines the advantages of deletion (unimportant files don't compete for attention) and keeping (files are retrieved in their folder context). We developed the GrayArea working prototype using thorough iterative design. We evaluated it by asking 96 participants to 'clean' two folders with, and without. GrayArea. Using GrayArea reduced folder clutter by 13%. Further, 81% of participants found it easier to demote than delete files, and most indicated they would use GrayArea if provided in their operating systems. The results provide strong evidence for the demotion principle suggested by the user-subjective approach.
AB - Users find it hard to delete unimportant personal information which often results in cluttered workspaces. We present a full design cycle for GrayArea, a novel interface that allows users to demote unimportant files by dragging them to a gray area at the bottom of their file folders. Demotion is an intermediate option between keeping and deleting. It combines the advantages of deletion (unimportant files don't compete for attention) and keeping (files are retrieved in their folder context). We developed the GrayArea working prototype using thorough iterative design. We evaluated it by asking 96 participants to 'clean' two folders with, and without. GrayArea. Using GrayArea reduced folder clutter by 13%. Further, 81% of participants found it easier to demote than delete files, and most indicated they would use GrayArea if provided in their operating systems. The results provide strong evidence for the demotion principle suggested by the user-subjective approach.
KW - Demotion
KW - Files
KW - Personal information management
KW - Subjective importance
KW - User-subjective
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892471926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1518701.1518745
DO - 10.1145/1518701.1518745
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AN - SCOPUS:84892471926
SN - 9781605582474
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 269
EP - 278
BT - CHI 2009
Y2 - 4 April 2009 through 9 April 2009
ER -