Favorite Folders A Configurable, Scalable File Browser.pdfVIP

Favorite Folders: A Configurable, Scalable File Browser Bongshin Lee, Benjamin B. Bederson Computer Science Department Human-Computer Interaction Lab University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA Tel: 1-301-405-7445 E-mail: {bongshin, bederson}@ ABSTRACT Microsoft Windows Explorer, the most widely used file browser in Microsoft Windows, shows almost all directories in the file system. However, most users usually access only a subset of the directories in their machine. If the file browser shows only the directories users are interested in, they can select the directory they want more easily and quickly. This paper introduces a configurable, scalable file system explorer that reduces selection time by showing only the directories users want to see. We give users an easy way to hide directories behind a special ellipsis node. In addition, those hidden directories are one click away. We present a preliminary field study conducted to validate the concept of Favorite Folders and a theoretical model to predict the performance times. KEYWORDS: Windows Explorer, file browser, adaptive interfaces, customizable interfaces INTRODUCTION A typical modern computer has a complex file system structure, involving many directories. As users are added to a multi-user machine and over time, the file system structure becomes more complex. However, a particular user may be interested in only some of these directories. Yet, the most widely used file browser in Microsoft Windows, Windows Explorer (Figure 1), provides the user with a fixed view of the file system structure. It displays nearly all directories in the file system, distracting the user and making the task of selecting a directory cumbersome. There have been a number of adaptive systems to improve selection performance by providing a small subset of all alternatives as with Microsoft Office’s adaptive menus. Researchers advocating adaptive systems believe that they are creatin