Information Scraps: Understanding and Design

In this thesis I investigate information scraps – personal information whose content has been scribbled on Post-it notes, scrawled on the corners of sheets of paper, stuck in our pockets, sent in e-mail messages to ourselves, and stashed into miscellaneous digital text files. Information scraps encode information ranging from ideas and sketches to notes, reminders, shipment tracking numbers, driving directions, and even poetry. I proceed by performing an in-depth ethnographic investigation of the nature and use of information scraps, and by designing and building two research systems designed for information scrap management. The first system, Jourknow, lowers the capture barrier for unstructured notes and structured information such as calendar items and to-dos, captures contextual information surrounding note creation such as location, documents viewed, and people corresponded with, and manages uncommon user-generated personal information such as restaurant reviews or this week’s shopping list. The follow-up system, Pinky, further explores the lightweight capture space by providing a command line interface that is tolerant to re-ordering and GUI affordances for quick and accurate entry. Reflecting on these tools’ successes and failures, I characterize the design process challenges inherent in designing and building information scrap tools. Thesis Supervisor: David R. Karger Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science