Citation Context

...pproach alone leaves the problems of interdependent task management unaddressed. So, in response to our findings, we began designing the Taskmaster system, using the eXtreme Programming (XP) approach =-=[3, 4]-=- to integrate fieldwork findings with design. Taskmaster goes much further than previous efforts to address the seven problems above by repositioning email as task management, providing resources to r...

Citation Context

...reasing body of literature points to the importance of email as a task management resource. Mackay [15] detailed how it supports a variety of time and task management activities. Whittaker and Sidner =-=[22]-=- extended her findings to show how the email inbox is a repository of “to-dos”, “to-reads” items of “indeterminate status” and “ongoing correspondence” that can be difficult to deal with. More recentl...

Citation Context

...nce” that can be difficult to deal with. More recently, we discussed how email is transforming into a “habitat”, the central place from which work is received, managed, and delegated in organizations =-=[9]-=-. In spite of the fact that users’ have co-opted this flexible application as a critical task management resource, the fundamental messaging metaphor of most clients is not optimized for task manageme...

Citation Context

... messaging metaphor of most clients is not optimized for task management. Email users clearly feel overwhelmed and daunted by the time it takes to deal with all the work coming in through this medium =-=[14, 22]-=-. Acknowledging this problem, a few recent projects have tried to overhaul email’s interface. Several have diminished the user’s cognitive burden by automating aspects of the filing and organizing of ...

Citation Context

... a few recent projects have tried to overhaul email’s interface. Several have diminished the user’s cognitive burden by automating aspects of the filing and organizing of the myriad incoming messages =-=[6, 17, 20]-=-. But this only addresses the problem of managing the volume of email. Others have explored different Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom us...

Citation Context

... a few recent projects have tried to overhaul email’s interface. Several have diminished the user’s cognitive burden by automating aspects of the filing and organizing of the myriad incoming messages =-=[6, 17, 20]-=-. But this only addresses the problem of managing the volume of email. Others have explored different Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom us...

Citation Context

...verloaded users. Keywords Email, task management, user studies, system evaluation INTRODUCTION An increasing body of literature points to the importance of email as a task management resource. Mackay =-=[15]-=- detailed how it supports a variety of time and task management activities. Whittaker and Sidner [22] extended her findings to show how the email inbox is a repository of “to-dos”, “to-reads” items of...

Citation Context

...dar. Based on our studies of email use, we built Taskmaster, an email system entirely redesigned for task and project management. Taskmaster offers a new solution to the often-decried “pain of email” =-=[8]-=- by recognizing upfront that this technology is not simply concerned with messaging, but that dealing with email and managing tasks and projects are indistinguishable [15, 22]. We accomplish this goal...

Citation Context

...fort we observed in problem 5 above, just as collation systems do. However, automatic filing via filtering or categorization can lead to problems: previous studies show users do not trust classifiers =-=[18]-=-, and like to see messages before moving them anywhere. Categorization can also defeat the use of the inbox as a primary to-do list [20]. Taskmaster maintains the to-do function of thrasks by keeping ...

Citation Context

...er’s thrasks were both reliable at collecting threaded messages, attachments and links and a successful means of organizing message content. As expected, preserving the context of messages was useful =-=[7, 11, 16]-=-. R2 “The high level good thing is that I think that it is surprisingly useful to me that when something arrives I actually see it in the context of the conversation….” Our users rated both organizing...

Citation Context

...ook place in email. So we focused on the following: • Addressing: Whether each message was individual, multiple or list addressed, implying its likely import in terms of thread tracking (as argued in =-=[2]-=-). • Threads: Series of topically related messages and replies (unlike [22] we analyzed content as well as subject lines and thus found a greater average density of threaded messages; 46.9%). Threads ...

Citation Context

...ging’ task-related content. From analysis of video recordings, we found that our participants spent about 10% of their email work time filing messages they thought they might need for future work (cf =-=[1]-=-) and about 8% scrolling around and inspecting folders to find messages associated with active threads. This problem is compounded by the fact that attachments and links often accompany these messages...

Citation Context

... a few recent projects have tried to overhaul email’s interface. Several have diminished the user’s cognitive burden by automating aspects of the filing and organizing of the myriad incoming messages =-=[6, 17, 20]-=-. But this only addresses the problem of managing the volume of email. Others have explored different Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom us...

Citation Context

...er’s thrasks were both reliable at collecting threaded messages, attachments and links and a successful means of organizing message content. As expected, preserving the context of messages was useful =-=[7, 11, 16]-=-. R2 “The high level good thing is that I think that it is surprisingly useful to me that when something arrives I actually see it in the context of the conversation….” Our users rated both organizing...

Citation Context

...pproach alone leaves the problems of interdependent task management unaddressed. So, in response to our findings, we began designing the Taskmaster system, using the eXtreme Programming (XP) approach =-=[3, 4]-=- to integrate fieldwork findings with design. Taskmaster goes much further than previous efforts to address the seven problems above by repositioning email as task management, providing resources to r...

Citation Context

...tribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CHI 2003, April 5–10, 2003, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Copyright 2003 ACM 1-58113-630-7/03/0004…$5.00. avenues. Among these, CAFE =-=[21]-=- is probably the most ambitious. Based on studies of email users’ behavior, CAFE offers three modes (busy, cool and curious) to satisfy varying needs in different situations. Cadiz et al.’s prototype ...

Citation Context

...uch a system. Finally, we present the results of an extended evaluation, during which nine users managed their email with our prototype. STUDIES OF TASK MANAGEMENT IN EMAIL Based on our previous work =-=[9, 10]-=-, and that of others cited above, we hypothesized that much of email’s complexity (and overload) depends on the nature of the task management activities it is used to support. So we devisedsa multi-ph...

Citation Context

... is probably the most ambitious. Based on studies of email users’ behavior, CAFE offers three modes (busy, cool and curious) to satisfy varying needs in different situations. Cadiz et al.’s prototype =-=[7]-=- focuses on keeping up with the flow of messages as they arrive and the activity of email triage on a body of new messages. In a similar vein Rohall et al. [19] describe visualization techniques to qu...

Citation Context

...l triage on a body of new messages. In a similar vein Rohall et al. [19] describe visualization techniques to quickly identify dependencies between messages in a conversation. Finally, Gwidzka’s work =-=[13]-=- focuses on the management of pending tasks and the process of reminding to act on them. This body of research is, however, only in its infancy, with each prototype only addressing one facet of the pr...

Citation Context

...ent situations. Cadiz et al.’s prototype [7] focuses on keeping up with the flow of messages as they arrive and the activity of email triage on a body of new messages. In a similar vein Rohall et al. =-=[19]-=- describe visualization techniques to quickly identify dependencies between messages in a conversation. Finally, Gwidzka’s work [13] focuses on the management of pending tasks and the process of remin...

Citation Context

...y of interpretation of the filtered message activity (we were close to 100% accurate). FINDINGS: TASK MANAGEMENT IN EMAIL Managing Tasks in Email: Quantity and To-Dos Our results from phases 1-4 (see =-=[5]-=- for details) focusing on task activity in email, show that some tasks require only a simple rapid response taking just a few seconds (similar to the one-touch model described in [22]). In other cases...

Citation Context

... than previous efforts to address the seven problems above by repositioning email as task management, providing resources to reduce the time consuming work of overloaded multitaskers. In 2001 Gartner =-=[12]-=- estimated that business users spend about 49 minutes each day processing their email. We felt that a tool that ameliorated problems 5, 6 and 7 could save users some of this time at the very least, an...