1986-1992 PhD. Making my files findable

applying psychological theory and method to solving the expereince problem of:

How to help people find thier files later while minimising the tedium of having to file to a complicated inflexible predefined system

In a non-computer supported environment we could call it the coffee stain effect, I can’t remember where I put it but I know it had a coffee stain on the top left hand side. How do computers systems support finding files based on the qualities of those files that people will actually remember.

The answer included an analysis of the document properties and and automatic multidimensional tagging system that included differential weightings between different inherent properties of the files. Nowadays desktop search engines are solving this problem, the problem space has remained the same the solution opportunities have evolved.

Studied at Loughborough University Human Sciences department supervised by Professor Mark Lansdale