The file naming habits of personal computer users

This study is an extension of research by J.M. Carroll (1982) on the naming of personal computer files. Eleven one-on-one interviews were conducted with both veteran and novice Personal Computer users to gain insights into the filenaming habits of individuals and the reasons for each of these naming behaviors. Randomly-selected filenames were examined both in isolation and within the context of other filenames, for morphological, lexical and semantic attributes and patterns; and evidence of the participants' purposes in employing each technique was obtained from the interview transcripts. The range of different filenaming strategies observed in this sample has implications for both the design of future measures of filenaming behavior, and of improved file management systems