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The project fragmentation problem in personal information management

Published:22 April 2006Publication 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

      Copyright © 2006 ACM

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 22 April 2006

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