Improving File Navigation with Spatially Consistent Revistation Visualisation
Joshua Leung
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
University of Canterbury
Abstract
People are storing an increasing amount of their data digitally in the form of files. However, many of
the current navigation based interfaces are unable to support efficient retrieval of this information. We
develop a file system crawler, and use this to conduct a user study to characterise the structural features
and temporal usage patterns of file systems. Based on these findings and the extensive prior literature,
we develop a spatially consistent representation of entire file systems which is augmented with colour-
coded tags allowing efficient access to temporally relevant target folders within the file system (SCOFT).
We conduct a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique and the supporting techniques
developed. Our findings show that SCOFT allows users to revisit files 3 times faster than when using a
standard file browser.
