[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Email checking in KMail
From:       Christoph Niemann <cnieman () suse ! de>
Date:       2003-10-20 10:28:12
[Download RAW message or body]

Hello,

my colleague was thinking about the email checking function of KMail. Right 
now, you can set an time interval to check emails. What do you think about a 
function to set specific times (i.e. check at 9:00, 12:00, 13:00 and 19:00) 
to check for emails? The reason for that is the high interruption time caused 
by frequent email alerts. 

The source of this idea is an article[1] about email interaction in 
organizations. Briefly summarized, it says that people set their email 
applications to alert them quite intrusively about new emails (i.e. have a 
sound alert, or even a popup). On average they react on new emails within 60 
seconds of arrival and it takes about one minute "to recover from email 
interrupts and return to (...) at the same work rate at which one left."

Also, the study identified four peaks in email interactivity throughout the 
day (8.30, 11.30, 13.30 and 16.30). That is, obviously, how I came up with 
the time examples above :-)

The article itself concludes to set an email applications to check for new 
mails no more frequently than every 45 min. and to reduce the prominence of 
interruptions. However, one might take it one step further and set specific 
times and one could maybe get rid of the alert entirely. Then, users would 
get used to check for emails at certains times routinely. Also, the defaults 
could be set to 45 min. interval and have some explanation and reasons in the 
help text.


References
[1] Jackson, W., Dawson, R., Wilson, D.: "Understanding Email Interaction 
Increases Organizational Productivity". In: "Communications of the ACM", 
August 2003/Vol. 46, No. 8, p. 80.

Greetings,
Christoph

-- 
 | Christoph Niemann <cnieman@suse.de>
 | SuSE Usability Guild
 |
 | Contrary to popular opinion, the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'fact'.

_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@mail.kde.org
http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]