The organization of home media

The growing volume of digital music, photos and video challenges media management software and organizing schemes alike. Through 20 in situ, two hour interviews we explored the when, why and how of our participants' organizational schemes. We sought and studied significantly larger media collections than in previous studies. For these larger media collections some common assumptions like the distinction between popular and classical music collectors do not hold. Our analysis identifies organizing schemes commonly used on a day-to-day basis. We found that participants often rely on overrides or exceptions to their organizational schemes that they consider idiosyncrasies. However, our findings illustrate that those idiosyncratic behaviors are more common than participants believe. Our analysis reflects upon prior research and on the relationship between physical and digital artifacts, relating computer supported cooperative work systems to contemporary media management applications. Our findings can inform the design of media management and media player software.