Linking information for mobile use

Abstract

Information Management (IM) has been an area of research and discussion for several decades. Studies have been conducted by behavioral and computer scientists on how people organize their information and workspaces in order to come up with efficient ways to store, organize and retrieve information on personal computers. This thesis explores improving a user's ability to manage information on mobile devices. The goal is to make placing information on such devices a more attractive prospect, with an emphasis on retrieval of stored information regardless of the document type. This will result in mobile users having quick access to the right information at the right time while away from the office or home. This thesis describes the challenges inherent in a mobile scenario and the system designed to address those challenges. The system provides visual and navigational features that are not currently available on mobile devices, specifically the ability to view multiple types of items in a single interface. Additionally, the ability to logically link related items as an IM tool is examined.