Using provenance to aid document re-finding

Abstract

In the field of Human-Computer Interaction, provenance refers to the complete history and genealogy of a document. Provenance can be useful in identifying related resources, such as different versions of the same document or resources used in the creation of a new document. Though methods of provenance collection and applications for provenance have been studied, no studies have documented the frequency of provenance events in typical computer use. We conducted a study of knowledge workers at Intel and used event-logging software to track provenance events as they occurred in the workplace over several weeks. We also interviewed knowledge workers to evaluate the effectiveness of provenance cues for document recall. Our data shows that provenance relationships are quite common, and provenance helps users recall more about their documents and understand the context of their workflows. Through a detailed analysis of the challenges facing knowledge workers, their typical work practices, and the utility of provenance, we argue that provenance can be useful in applications like desktop search.