[Usability] Category Management (i.e. Rhythmbox Music Player)

[Jacob Beauregard <jake13jake comcast net>]

Alright, so the clearest example of problems in regards to category 
management is in Rhythmbox, where songs are categorized by Album and Artist.

I'll precede this by saying, effective categorization requires the 
minimization of the number of categories that contain  very few items 
without browsing becoming increasingly difficult.

For instance, one doesn't categorize books solely by name in a library.

With that said, there is a problem with the categorization method that 
Rhythmbox uses. When one categorizes by Artist, and a large number of 
artists have few unique tracks, it no longer proves an effective method 
of categorization. The same could be said for Albums that are singles or 
have very few tracks.

This makes browsing extremely difficult; most users will thus default to 
using the search bar. However, browsing is just as important as 
filtering due to the factor of greater visibility. It's just like using 
an aggregator vs. using a search engine. They both serve their purposes, 
and one should be able to use either effectively.

I would propose for _any_ kind of populated categorization first to 
require that an expandable "Other" category be used if one, the category 
lists a number of items that falls below a particular number of standard 
deviations from the mean number of items per categorization; and two, 
the items within the categories that meet this condition can be 
populated as a whole to be within the particular number of standard 
deviations.

Would this be a good idea?