Paper Reading #2: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place

Comments:
Stuart Jones
Derek Landini

Reference information:
Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
Authors: William Jones, Dawei Hou, Bhuricha Deen Sethanandh, Sheng Bi, Jim Gemmell
CHI 2010

Summary:
The Personal Project Planner (Planz) is an application overlay on top of the standard folder/directory hierarchy with single document-like structure to improve organization. It is not only for filesystems, but can also be applied to e-mails and web pages. The inspiration for this application is the idea that closed folders are more like doors than windows, so files contained in folders are more easily forgotten unless the folder is open. Planz centers around a single document that can act as an outline, with multiple headings and subheadings. This document also provides in-context linking for tasks to relevant e-mail messages or web pages and other documents.

Planz was evaluated by eight people (five male, 3 female). Each participant selected two projects they were currently working on, and continued working on one as normal and the other using Planz.

The Real "Minority Report"

Discussion:
This reminds me of the Gmail feature of adding labels to e-mail messages: all e-mails are visible, but view control allows only e-mails with certain labels to be shown. I see the merit in pursuing this interface, but I personally have not found myself griping while navigating filesystems in Windows or Unix systems. I understand the point made that a folder closed is more a door than a window, but the authors don't acknowledge that folder names help against this. In addition, a much larger number of participants should have been selected to evaluate the application; eight participants does not seem adequate.