This post was mentioned on Twitter by gpowelldesign: When Data Gets Up Close and Personal http://bit.ly/ayHO92...

http://sensemaya.org/2010/02/06/context-interaction-email-case-study

on context, interaction patterns and email. comments welcome

Excellent comments!

You’re absolutely right about email being a multi-purpose communication system. How do you determine evaluation criteria when usage is so different? In an earlier draft of this article (one overly focused on the game and not the principles), I did present the idea email archetypes. I do think after more than a decade of email usage, we could arrive at a set of archetypal email interactions (mailing lists, direct emails, system notifications, etc.). If we can agree on some common email patterns, and assist users with identifying these early on, I do think we could define normative behaviors for specific types of exchanges. Good observation!

Your comment about context seems to me the more challenging one– and a critical consideration. I’ll offer up a few thoughts:

- Technology context might indicate social norms: Many people use Outlook at work (for business), and gmail or Yahoo! mail for personal use. These platforms can be indicators of context. In my case, I use one platform for professional and personal use– but this reflects how blurred these lines are for me…

- Are there desirable behaviors that a dumb system can help enforce? For example, should you be checking email during a meeting? Should you allow yourself to be interrupted by email throughout the day? Increasingly, many of the best recommendations for email use converge on similar ideas about setting rules for distractions. I might be in a situation where it’s good to check email every 1-2 hours. For others, it might be best to check twice daily. I think the game described here could help you choose a good default based on your needs/goals…

- Social context: One thing I mention in passing in how we evaluate performance in a system where usage does vary so much. For one person, 10 emails a day is the norm. For someone else, juggling several 100 emails a day may present no problem. Or juggling 10 or 200 could be a daunting task for another person. As with exercise programs, there are standard patterns of what constitutes “good,” but we don’t hold everyone to the same standards. For my BMI, I may be doing great to run twice a week for half an hour. For someone else, that could be major backsliding. What I think a system like this would offer is a chance to look at people within my social circle operating under similar conditions– I could see how I’m doing relative to everyone, but analogous to users who share similar circumstances.

I agree we should look for every opportunity to fix technology deficits before making users change their behavior. What I’m trying to describe is how we might go about creating a system whereby people can realize their goals. This may come down to whether we view email as a tool to be used or a platform within which to operate.

By the way, that’s an excellent article you mention! Precisely the kinds of things I love learning about…. I certainly favor reduction in the UI wherever possible. My article indicates an additive process, as I’m thinking about how this could be realistically achieved as a plugin to extend the email platforms we already use. If I was designing a new email platform from the ground up with these things built in, the execution would probably be different– I’d build some of these ideas into the architecture of the system– take a “break away from the conventional ideas that have got us in this mess, ” to quote the article. But, that would introduce a bigger problem: asking people to change their email platform (which is a much, much more daunting challenge than the gaming I describe in the article!). Another thing I love about the Wired article, it mentions “bettering the quality” of life as a motivation for redesigning the roads. While I make no mention on this in my article, I’d want to eventually included system that rules that help you make better (for you personally) decisions–it’s not all about inbox zero or efficient responses. In the end, email is just one tool (or system) to facilitate communications. Viewed from this perspective, there’s plenty more we could do to re-imagine not only email, but the various ways we interact with people and entities…