Authors:
Saturnino Luz
1
;
Masood Masoodian
2
;
Bill Rogers
2
and
Simon De Schutter
2
Affiliations:
1
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
;
2
The University of Waikato, New Zealand
Keyword(s):
File management systems, 3D user interfaces, Information visualisation, Hierarchical folders, File relationships, Virtual folders, Window management systems.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Abstract Data Visualization
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Display and Interaction Technology
;
General Data Visualization
;
Interactive Visual Interfaces for Visualization
Abstract:
The desktop metaphor with its hierarchical structure of folders is the basis of almost all graphical file management systems. Despite this popularity, these systems suffer from several problems, including the restrictiveness of the single inheritance structure of hierarchical file management. Although various alternative systems have been proposed, none of these have gained popularity. We argue that the reason for this failure is that these systems have generally proposed complete alternatives to the hierarchical system, thus ignoring many of its positive aspects. In this paper we describe a 3D graphical file management which complements conventional 2D hierarchical folder structures by allowing visualisation of alternative file relationships.