Tabletop File System Access: Associative and Hierarchical Approaches

This paper presents the design of two tabletop file system interfaces: OriTop, a novel associative access approach to file system interaction, where users navigate multiple file systems by selecting focus files; and the Browser, a hierarchical interface that is based upon the same mental model as conventional desktop file system access. We report a qualitative study with ten users to explore both approaches. OnTop was found to better facilitate collaboration on file access and use, while the more familiar hierarchical model of the Browser was found to be more natural on very early use and has a clear role-particularly in cases where the associative approach fails.