Email Overload: Exploring Personal Information Management of Email

Email is one of the most successful computer applications yet devised. Our empirical data show however, that although email was originally designed as a communications application, it is now being used for additional functions, that it was not designed for, such as task management and personal archiving . We call this email overload. We demonstrate that email overload creates problems for personal information management: users often have cluttered inboxes containing hundreds of messages, including outstanding tasks, partially read documents and conversational threads. Furthermore, user attempts to rationalise their inboxes by filing are often unsuccessful, with the consequence that important messages get overlooked, or "lost" in archives. We explain how email overloading arises and propose technical solutions to the problem. Keywords Email, information overload, personal information management, asynchronous communication, filing, task management, interpersonal communication,...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1996
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Steve Whittaker, Candace L. Sidner
• Keywords: CHI 1996, Email, Email Overload, Human Computer Interaction, Personal Information Management