Going with the flow: Email awareness and task management

Abstract

Email use in the context of everyday work practices, or email flow, has not been heavily studied. We present the results of a pair of studies examining how users interlace email with their day-to-day, ongoing work processes. We demonstrate that our subjects use email as a tool for managing moment-to-moment attention and task focus. We also provide a model of this workflow that builds upon an existing model by Venolia et al. Finally, we provide specific design recommendations to enhance the usability of email clients in support of these modes of interaction. © Copyright 2006 ACM.