understanding the evolution of users' personal information practices
DESCRIPTION
Slides for my talk at INTERACT 2007 Doctoral Consortium.Rio de Janeiro, September 11, 2007.TRANSCRIPT
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Manas TungareAdvisor: Manuel Pérez Quiñones
Understanding the Evolutionof Users’ Personal Information
Management Practices
Watch on your laptop: manas.tungare.name/now
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Research Area Overview
PersonalInformationManagement
Multi-Platform User Interfaces
Human Computer Interaction
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PersonalInformationManagement
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Information In Many Forms
Jones 2002
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Mind-boggling Amounts
12399753364
126 Email messages per day
Messages in personal archive
Files in home directory
Anecdotal numbers; not real data.
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Information about a person kept by and under the control
of others.E.g. health information.
Personal Information
Information kept for personal use.
E.g. files, documents.
Information experienced by a person but outside her
control.E.g. books, websites browsed.
Information directed to a person.
E.g. email, IM.
Jones 2006
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Information is FragmentedAcross Collections
Boardman 2004
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Current Research
Paper
Bookmarks
Documents
Folders
All Collections
Whittaker 1996Gwizdka 2002
Boardman 2004Bruce 2004
Abrams 1998
Jones 2005
Malone 1983
Kelly 2006Boardman 2004
Jones 2006
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Information is FragmentedAcross Devices
Tungare 2006
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Research Questions
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1. Using Multiple Devices for PIM
• How do devices affect information flows?
• Inter-relationships between devices
• Formation of groups of devices
• Attaining equilibrium in the information ecosystem
• Custom strategies influenced by devices
• Device failures
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Expected findings
• Hypothesis: The device is an important consideration, which, in addition to the specific collection, affects PIM practices.
• Finding(s): Exactly how a device (or group) affects PIM
• E.g. why do people use their address book on their phone, but not on their computer?
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2. Evolution of PIM Practices
• Natural transitions in life
• High school to college
• Grad school to industry
• Is there a pattern of stages in which information management practices change in response to these transitions?
• How is equilibrium achieved?
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Expected findings
• Hypothesis: There is a pattern in which users develop strategies for PIM.
• This pattern can be reified and made known to the next set of users who are going to make similar transitions.
• Tool designers can take these patterns into account.
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Methodology
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Studying PIM
• PIM is highly individualized & contextual
• Tools are just the surface
• Deeper understanding needed
• Approaches: browsing versus searchingTeevan 2004
• Personalities: filers versus pilersMalone 1983
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• Survey + Interviews
• What activities do you perform on each device?
• What data do you keep on each device?
• What pairs of devices do you keep synchronized?
• What failures have you encountered?
Study 1: PIM & Multiple Devices
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Study 2: PIM over time
• Longitudinal study of users across natural transitions in life
• Recruited while still in “pre-” phase
• Graduating students moving to industry
• Undergrads continuing to grad school
• Spot interviews, longer stories, observation, diary studies[Details are still being worked out.]
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Expected Contributions
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An understanding of ...
• how PIM practices are influenced by devices.
• how PIM practices change over time.
• how custom strategies develop.
• what parameters affect the evolution of these practices, and in what way.
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Significance
• Implications from findings will inform the design of new tools & applications
• New devices designed to integrate better into a user’s existing information environment
• A clearer understanding of users’ frustration at the current state-of-the-art in multi-device PIM.
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Summary
• PIM is an interesting area in HCI where a deeper understanding of users’ practices would benefit lots of users.
• Open questions in PIM research include understanding how people use multiple devices for information management & how their strategies evolve over time.
• (Hopefully,) my work will help answer these and design future devices and apps better.