Wendy E. Mackay
Abstract
This paper describes a series of interviews that examine the ways that professional office workers use electronic mail to manage their daily work. The purpose is to generate hypotheses for future research. A number of implications for the design of flexible mail systems are discussed.
Two principal claims are made. First, the use of electronic mail is strikingly diverse, although not infinitely so. Individuals vary both in objective measures of mail use and in preferred strategies for managing work electronically. Feelings of control are similarly diverse and are related to the size of the user's inbox, numbers of folders, and subscriptions to distribution lists. This diversity implies that one's own experiences with electronic mail are unlikely to provide sufficient understanding of other's uses of mail. Mail designers should thus seek flexible primitives that capture the important dimensions of use and provide flexibility for a wide range of users.
The second claim is that electronic mail is more than just a communication system. Users archive messages for subject retrieval, prioritize messages to sequence work activities, and delegate tasks via mail. A taxonomy of work management is proposed in which mail is used for information management, time management, and task management activities. Directions for future research are suggested.
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Index Terms
- Diversity in the use of electronic mail: a preliminary inquiry
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Reviews
Alan Daniel Wexelblat
This tantalizing paper presents the results of preliminary surveys of electronic mail users taken just before the MIT Information Lens was introduced into their environment. The questions it raises are interesting enough to make the reader want to hear more, but no answers are available yet. The Lens organizes and filters mail messages both before and after the user reads them; it uses rules and semistructured templates designed by and for the user to help people deal with a previously unstructured electronic world. To determine the effects of this software on a group of professional office workers, Mackay conducted a series of interviews measuring their pre-Lens states. The results, as reported in this paper, are inconclusive but suggest future research directions. Mackay acknowledges repeatedly that the survey results do not answer any questions. Instead, she notes, they generate hypotheses for future testing. The data seem to suggest that electronic mail has diverse uses, though the diversity is constrained. People vary widely in their feelings of control over the environment, ranging from those who feel “in control,” through those who are “on the edge,” to some who freely admit that their electronic mail is completely out of control. I found this paper worthwhile despite preliminary nature and look forward to seeing the end results of the study.
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