Navigating to a File

If you’re like most people, you access your files by navigating down the directory structure to them. That’s not the only possibility though. You could also use one of the search engines built into your operating system. If you can’t remember where a file is, you may have to use this method.

It turns out though, that people prefer navigating to files over searching for them. Looked at rationally, that seems backwards. Most times search is faster both when storing files and when locating them. Karl Voit, whose tweet lead me to the video linked below, has done extensive research in this area and uses a file naming convention that aids in using search techniques for locating files. Still, most people prefer the navigation method.

Ofer Bergman has a very short video (1:42) that explains why this is. The video is so short and to-the-point that giving a TL;DR doesn’t make sense. Just go watch it; it’s interesting and helps explain why search-based file handling hasn’t taken off.

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