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Exploring the effectiveness of 3D file browsing techniques for file searching tasks

Based on an analysis of the existing literature, we extracted important features regarding 3D file organization and layout. In this way, three separate 3D file browsing techniques were evaluated in a comparison study. Block3D uses a priority weighting scheme to elevate and display files in a grid-based structure. Cluster3D uses sets of animated racks to display files. TreeCubePlus3D visualizes files and directories using groups of semi-transparent cubes within a larger cube-like structure. Across all techniques, each file was represented as a thumbnail image of the file's image, document or document with pictures data. The thumbnails were also augmented with meta-information such as filename and relevancy information to simulate a realistic search. Our experiment explores the effectiveness of each 3D file browsing technique in a manual file searching task. Our evaluation is based on task completion time and a post-questionnaire used to gather subjective feedback on each technique in terms of user preference. The results indicate that users completed the manual file search task significantly faster using Block3D than both TreeCubePlus3D and Cluster3D. Subjective ranking also showed users preferred the Block3D technique.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:honorstheses1990-2015-1833
Date01 January 2009
CreatorsLeal, Anamary
PublisherSTARS
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
SourceHIM 1990-2015

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