Designing Electronic Folders

How do you design Electronic Folder Structures and make them work?

I read recently that more new content was created in 2012 than in the previous 5,000 years of human history. Another article talked about citizens of the USA being exposed to a Zettabyte of information every year (a Zettabyte is 1 followed by 21 zeros)!

In a virtual world and with so much information flying around there is a need to save material in such a way that you can find it again easily. Mostly you will save soft or electronic copies, and if you are just clicking the "save" button the chances of finding it again are either slim or zero (and slim just left town).

Creating folders on the fly risks duplicating structures and confusing the whole situation.

Your folder structures should offer support to your records management program and incorporate a design that makes retrieval intuitive. Folder structures should be part of a larger records management framework that incorporates internal and external requirements into a comprehensive whole.

The soft folder structure should tie in with hard copy records as in some cases you will have both forms. Remember that where naming conventions/rules have been established, they should be reasonably comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy to understand.

Folders should be divided and sub-divided based on a clear, consistent logic which reflects business processes and anticipates frontline users’ retrieval needs. It is therefore important to consult prospective system users on all levels.

In assessing whether the structural design of your electronic folders meets the needs of the users, you should check the following points are covered:

• Do the folders provide complete coverage of all business functions, processes and other major categories of recorded information across your organization?
• Do all folders follow the same logic? Where a folder is divided into different sub-folders, every sub-folder should be defined according to the same logic. For example, if a folder were divided into sub-folders based on geographic location, every sub-folder should correspond to a geographic location.
• Have you added new retrieval cues and browsing support?  Keep it simple, it’s important that folders not be sub-divided as part of a well-meaning attempt to make the structure look more complex or sophisticated than necessary.
• Are the folders sub-divided in a way that allows for the application of records retention categories, as documented in your retention policy?
• Are the retention rules supported by grouping files with similar disposal dates?
• Have you allowed for the segregation of any vital/critical records requiring special protection and back-up processes other than those already applied to the entire network?

While this is not an exhaustive list, the above will get you moving in the right direction to be able to file and retrieve information well into the Zettabytes of tomorrow.