TaskView: Design and Evaluation of a Task-Based Email Interface

Gwizdka, Jacek TaskView: Design and Evaluation of a Task-Based Email Interface., 2002 . In 2002 Conference of the IBM Centre of Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research (CASCON), Markham, Ontario, Canada, September 30 - October 3, 2002. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

Email was originally designed as a tool for asynchronous communication. However, as the number of messages increased, so did their variety. A wide range of new and unforeseen email tasks reflects this variety. One of the most commonly performed activities in email is management of pending tasks. This research focuses on how to support this activity in email and explores solutions that use different external representations of messages and associated tasks. Central to this research is understanding the role of both external artifacts in managing multiple pending tasks, as well as internal representations and processes and how they can be linked to external representations. In a recent study we compared the effects of two email interfaces (Microsoft Outlook Inbox and TimeStore-TaskView) on efficiency and effectiveness of information finding in email messages. We found that TimeStore-TaskView interface was overall faster for finding information related to task dates, time and task overviews, while the Inbox interface was faster for finding information from subject lines, senders or from the message body. Based on the results from the study, we are in the process of designing a modified email prototype and a follow-up user study.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: email interface, task management, prospective memory, external representations, visualization
Subjects: L. Information technology and library technology > LA. Telecommunications.
L. Information technology and library technology > LK. Software methodologies and engineering.
Depositing user: Jacek Gwizdka
Date deposited: 25 Nov 2009
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:15
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/13700

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