Users should be able to quickly grasp the most important file properties when they access their data via storage devices. This is especially important for storage devices with unique features such as molecular storage media as well as novel media that are still under development. The ideal user interface would let the user visualize these properties using various visual methods, and ideally present them in order of importance to the user.
When using the hard disk drive for instance, people often find the capacity property be among the most critical. Early systems provided built-in tools that reported specific information about a user’s storage device, yet they were primarily focused on displaying the device’s total capacity with bar charts that were stacked and their variants (e.g. doughnut charts).
With more modern systems, however the capacity of a file is typically only one of the many aspects that are displayed to the user. Some systems, for instance show the duration of http://virtuadata.net/how-to-service-your-own-computer/ a file by using graphs, or a pie chart which also displays the number of segments used in the storage device. Additional information, like the probability of a lifetime will be displayed when the user hovers the stacks.
The challenge is that IT teams must now collaborate with departments and end-users in order to facilitate more cost-efficient storage and faster and secure access to the appropriate data sets to help support new projects and ideas. This change requires IT departments to be focused less on the acquisition of technology in the context of configuration and budget management and more on empowering users to self-serve their requirements.