Why E-mail is Good
Isaac Garcia explores the Good in E-mail. I am going to dig a little deeper to try and understand why people consistently choose to use e-mail. Taking a hint from Greg Raiz I will take a cognitive load approach to under sanding what’s so good about e-mail. I don’t have the bandwidth to compare these use cases using the many different collaborative suits that are out there but I would encourage their developers to do so.
Persona Alex: para-legal
Use case: Write a memo
Steps to write a memo:
1) Click New
2) Type recipient’s name
3) Type subject
4) Type memo
5) Click Send
Overhead: Steps 1 and 5
Persona Jamie: lawyer
Use case: Read and reply to memo
Steps to read and reply to memo:
1) Click on bold subject
2) Read memo
3) Click Reply
4) Edit response
5) Click Send
Overhead Steps 3 and 5.
Even if there’s no room to remove any steps collaboration software should take no more that five per person to carry on a conversation. Any software that takes more than five steps has complexity working against it. With this use case in mind it is clear that Alex is focused on step 4 while Jamie is focused on steps 2 and 4. The faster they can get there and finish, the more attractive the software is from a cognitive load perspective. The original Palm Pilot managed to skip step 1 in the calendaring application by allowing you to just click on the time you wanted to start an activity and just start writing. An e-mail program might have an empty e-mail ready to go at the top or bottom of the screen. When you start typing it expands and lets to proceed directly to steps 2-4. I am not aware of an easy way to get rid of step 5.
It is important to note that Alex chose to initiate the process. If some collaborative suite could reduce just Alex’s load he might be more inclined to use an alternative to e-mail. This thinking goes directly against systems that require tagging or filing new documents. Shifting the burden of organizing content to the creator is a sure way to guarantee that no one uses the software. Barring corporate mandate Alex will take the path of least resistance and send Jamie an e-mail.
Also note that, as Isaac puts it, “Email is in your face.” Jamie will probably respond using whatever mechanism is easiest. If Alex sends an e-mail with a link to a document on a website or a wiki page, Jamie might be more inclined to respond in that manner. And a wiki, for example, may only take four steps if the link Alex sends is to an editing page: click, read, edit, save.
Although ninety percent of collaboration is between Alex and Jamie many collaboration suites focus on the ability to find information. So for completeness sake here is a look at search. Typically there are two types of e-mail organization: folders and the in-box. People who are very organized spend time moving their incoming mail into folders based on various topics: sender’s affiliation, project, customer, etc. People who don’t organize are forced to search: sort by sender, sort by subject, sort by date or keyword search.
Persona Zack: client
Use case: Review documents from lawyers
Steps to review documents sent by e-mail
1) Click on “Documents from Lawyers” folder
2) Scan subjects
3) Click to read e-mail
4) Click again to read attachment
Overhead: Step 4
or
1) Sort by sender
2) Scan subject
3) Click to read e-mail
4) Click again to read attachment
Overhead: Step 4
or
1) Click Find
2) Type keywords
3) Click Search
4) Scan subjects
5) Click to read e-mail
6) Click again to read attachment
Overhead: Steps 1, 3 and 6
To use organized search the user has to indicate some method of search such as a folder or an attribute. Clicking to read the attachment is a hassle - especially programs that prompt you after you’ve clicked the attachment as to whether you really want to open this attachment. The reasoning is that you may accidentally click on spyware but you’re just as likely to get in the habit of clicking OK and launch it anyways. Personally I’d like to see attachment displayed in-line wherever possible so I can skip step 4 completely.
In the last case is simpler in Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird. Both have a search box into which you can start typing and it will automatically search for matching messages. Neither searches attachments thought and Thunderbird requires that you hit enter after typing in your search phrase.