Users should be able to quickly understand the most important properties of files when accessing their data via storage devices. This is especially important when it comes to storage media that come with unique characteristics, like molecular storage media or new media currently in development. The ideal user interface will allow users to see these properties with many different visual tools, and ideally present them in order of importance to the user.
For example the capacity property is usually one of the most important factors for users who are using an old-fashioned hard disk drive. Early systems included tools that provided detailed information about the storage device. However, they focused on displaying its total capacity through bar graphs stacked and their variations (e.g. doughnut charts).
Modern systems, however the capacity of a file can be just one of the properties that are presented to the user. For example some systems display the duration of a file using a graph or a pie chart that also displays the number of accessed segments within the storage device and other information, such as lifetime prediction is displayed when the user hovers over the stacks.
IT teams are now required to work with users and departments to provide more efficient storage of data and faster secure access to appropriate data sets for new projects and ideas. This change requires IT teams to concentrate less on procurement of technology and management of configurations and more on empowering line-of business users to assist them with their own self-service needs.
