Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System

Citation

Marsden G & Cairns D (2003) Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System. In: Eloff J, Englebrecht A, Kotze P & Eloff M (eds.) SAICSIT '03 Proceedings of the 2003 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology. SAICSIT '03: the 2003 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 122-129. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=954027&CFID=346292698&CFTOKEN=65697882

Abstract
Whether you are interested in improving the usability of Linux, Macintosh or Windows, there is one restriction you cannot escape -- the hierarchical file storage system. The notion of files and folders has been with us for so long that it almost seems axiomatic. In this paper we look at the effects on users of forcing a hierarchical classification of files. We also consider how some of the resultant problems can be tackled with a new piece of file browsing software based on the ideas of relational database systems.