finding email in a multi-account, multi-device world

Finding Email in a Multi-Account, Multi-Device World

Marta E. Cecchinato1, Abigail Sellen2, Milad Shokouhi2, Gavin Smyth2 1University College London 2Microsoft Research

Email: [email protected] Twitter: @martacecchinato

What is the fate of email?

Growing numbers

Emails sent per day (Radicati, 2015)

Email accounts per user (Radicati, 2015)

Device ownership (PEW research, 2015)

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Prior work on re-finding emailPreparatory behaviour: users take time to file and label email in anticipation of retrieving the information.

Opportunistic behaviour: users rely on sorting, scrolling or searching at the time of need, delaying the burden.

Whittaker et al. (2011)

Search

What retrieval strategies do users employ across work and personal accounts? ��Do users’ email retrieval strategies differ across devices?

Participants•  16 users (9 women) •  22-54 years old (median: 28) •  Various professions

physiotherapist, nurses, PhD students, researchers, post-doc, high school teacher, teaching associate, barista, software engineer, graphic designer, and marketing coordinator.

3 email accounts each

4 devices each

2 smartwatch users ©M

artaCecchinato

Initial interview General understanding of email use. 45 to 80 minutes.

Diary study & data logging

239 diary entries were collected. RescueTime was optional: 6 out of 16 agreed. 7 days.

Follow-up interview

Further insights on diary entries. Scheduled within 7 days from the end of the diary. 20 to 60 minutes.

Pre-study survey & pictures (physical desktop + folders)

Method

Main findings

1.  Retrieval across accounts

2.  Issues and workarounds across accounts

3.  Issues and workarounds across devices

1. Retrieval across accountsPreferred retrieval strategies based on type of account:

•  Personal accounts: opportunistic strategies

•  Work accounts: preparatory + opportunistic strategies

Search

Search

2. Issues & workarounds across accounts

Boundaries between accounts are not always well defined

2. Issues & workarounds across accounts

My sister might send me this really interesting thing to do with academic things […] and she might have put some personal information about a holiday… I’d be really confused about where to put that [in folders].�

(P10, first interview)

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P10’s home office (work) P10’s home office (personal)

2. Issues & workarounds across accountsBefore [my colleague and I] set [Slack] up, it was really horrid, […] it would all be like, ‘Oh, I sent you an email three months ago’ or ‘I sent you a text’ or, like, ‘I’ve got this like WhatsApp chat thing’. But [now with Slack] it is all in there and it’s all curated heavily and there’s no, like, subject changing […] you’re not posting something about going for drinks in the thread about the job we’re working on.

(P12, first interview)

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3. Issues & workarounds across devices

Smartphones are associated with storage and connectivity issues

3. Issues & workarounds across devicesRe-sending Switching application External copies Pictures & screenshots


Emailapp Webclient


It’s like keeping a single post-it note for it […] so its ephemeral. I mean, I don’t search in the same way […] I don’t keep an archive of all the post-it notes because once that’s reached its purpose, it’s often in the recycle bin.

(P1, follow-up interview)

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Had previously taken a screenshot of my confirmation email from Trainline containing info about both the outbound and inbound train + went on my photo album on my phone + found the picture to collect my tickets.

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(P7, diary)

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Take home message1.  Work and personal emails are

managed and retrieved differently.

2.  It’s important to consider multiple devices: emails are primarily retrieved on laptops/PCs & smartphones are rarely used for finding emails.

3.  Email retrieval is a frustrating experience.

4.  As a result, users create workarounds, i.e. using Slack or taking screenshots.

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So what? We need to…

Better integrate email for work.

Learn from other communication tools.

Design for short-lived and long-lived content.

Optimise smartphone search.

Imagesource:h9p://www.justynsmith.com/2012/01/short-term-is-the-new-long-term/

Imagesource:h9p://hop.media/read/tech/always-on-your-phone-usage-is-pissing-off-everyone

Take home message:

1.  Work and personal emails are managed and retrieved differently.2.  It’s important to consider multiple devices: smartphones are rarely used for finding

emails.3.  Email retrieval is a frustrating experience.4.  Users create workarounds.

Email: [email protected] Twitter: @martacecchinato

Finding Email in a Multi-Account, Multi-Device World

finding email in a multi-account, multi-device world

Technology