InboT
Seamless, effortless, mind less!
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Role​
Tools​
Duration​
Methods​​​
Format
UX researcher, wireframe developer​, design ideation lead
Adobe XD, Atlas.ti, Google Forms​
4 months​
Survey, In-depth interview, Usability testing (cognitive walkthrough)
Team project with Soomin Kim, Jihyun Um, Jiho Um
Overview
Investigating user needs for an unorganized email inbox
and designing a solution.
As a solution, we designed a pop-up assistant plug-in that utilizes an automated algorithm to address the challenge of an unorganized email inbox based on exploratory user research and usability evaluations.
Desk Research
Primary Research
Survey
-General Survey
-Non-experts Survey
In-depth Interview
-Experts Interview
-Non-experts Interview
Establishing
Design Requirements
Solution & Design Ideation
User evaluation
Usability Testing
Final Prototype
Goal
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To address user pain points and needs regarding an unorganized email inbox to design a solution.
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To analyze current users' strategies for organizing their inbox.
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To organize design implications for a solution on inbox organization.
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To enhance the usability and effectiveness of the solution.
Tasks
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Conducted user research to identify current challenges and issues faced by the users.
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Streamlined the user flow of the product.
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Iteratively tested and refined the product.
Background
Email usage is constantly growing, but the problem of information overload and an unorganized inbox remains.
Fisher, D., Brush, A. J., Gleave, E., & Smith, M. A. (2006). Revisiting Whittaker Sidner’s “email overload” ten years later. Proceedings of the 2006 20th Anniversary Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work - CSCW ’06 (pp. 309-312). ACM Press.
Whittaker, S. & Sidner, C. (1996). Email overload. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Common Ground - CHI ‘96. ACM Press.
Radicati Group. (2020). Email Statistics Report, 2020-2024. RADICATI. Retrieved Dec 1, 2021, from https://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Email_Statistics_Report,_2020-2024_Executive_Summary.pdf
General Usage Survey
Purpose: To investigate a general email usage and tendency
Target: Any email users (convenient sampling)
Recruitment: Convenient sampling through social media
Sample: 209 participants
Format: Google Forms​
Non-experts survey
Purpose: To pinpoint user pattern with unorganized inbox
Target: Anyone who finds it difficult to organize their email inbox
Recruitment: Convenient sampling through social media
Sample: 119 participants
Format: Google Forms​
We noticed diverse patterns in email usage and organization, as well as the fact that unorganized email inbox is a real-world problem that people are actually suffering according to the majority of the responses.
While non-experts have an idea of what an 'ideal inbox' looks like, the overwhelming amount of accumulated emails makes them reluctant to start organizing.
Experts
In-depth Interview
Purpose: To examine experts' general organization-related routines, motivations, and implied emotions.
Target: anyone who organizes at least one email inbox on a regular basis (defined as 'experts')
Recruitment: Convenient sampling through social media
Sample: 8 participants
Duration: 30 min. - 1 hr.
Non-experts
In-depth Interview
Purpose: To examine the perceptions of non-experts' toward email organization and guidelines provided by the experts.
Target: anyone who does not organize at least one email inbox on a regular basis
Recruitment: Snowball sampling
Sample: 4 participants
Duration: 30 min. - 1 hr.
Codebook created through the interviews
Sub-categorization and correlation of the codes
In-Depth Analysis
The 6 Design Requirements
to design solution for inbox organization
Insights
1. An unorganized email inbox must be aided by a universal solution.
2. Users distrust the current automatic sorting system (e.g., spam).
3. The new function suggested for efficient organization should not require many steps to perform.
4. There is no correlation between the frequency of checking the inbox and the condition of the inbox.
5. An empty inbox is not the main concept of an organized inbox.
6. The standard for an ideally organized mailbox is similar for both experts and non-experts.
7. Users do not actually use the function even if they recognize it.
8. Users have a resistance to structural changes that remove the distinction between conventional mail forms and other communication services.
9. Piled-up emails demotivate users from organizing their inbox.
10. Regardless of actual existence, users are affected by its visibility.
New function must be ____________ :
1. Be universal (From Insight #1, 6)
2. Be simple and intuitive (From Insight #3, 4)
3. Be familiar (From Insight #5, 8)
4. Be proactive (From Insight #7)
5. Requires user's final confirmation (From Insight #2)
6. Be applied to both old mails and new mails (From Insight #9, 10)
Solution Ideation
Each option to have its advantages and disadvantages,
so we made our decision based on its
functionality in both the old and new mail.
(design requirement #6)
Exploring Design Alternatives
Final Solution: InboT
Seamless, Effortless, Mind Less
You are just a click away!
1. Customized Suggesetions
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Analyzes behavioral patterns of each user
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For lazy users - provides a suggestion by recognizing laziness as another pattern
2. Undo & History
- To increase the proactiveness of users
- Pop-up messages are replaced by new ones each time
- Prevents users from feeling anxious about missing anything or becoming overwhelmed!
3. See More
- For a more tailored organization process
- Reduces distrust towards the AI's decision
4. ON/OFF Toggle
- Notifications can be turned off to minimize disruption
Usability Testing
To evaluate the prototype's usability and to identify any potential misunderstandings or intuitiveness issues
45 min. - 1.5 hr.
12 participants​​​
Cognitive walkthrough; 3 basic tasks and 3 advance tasks given with probe questions
Purpose:
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​
Duration:
Sample:
Method:
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Usability Testing #1 - Exploratory​
Usability Testing #2 - Assessment​
Purpose:
​​​​
Duration:
Sample:
Method: ​
To verify whether modification improved user experience.​
45 min. - 1.5 hr.
10 participants​​​
Cognitive walkthrough; 3 basic tasks and 3 advance tasks given with probe questions
InboT: Seamless, Effortless, Mind Less.
Reflections
Challenges
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Our initial hypothesis was contradicted by new insights, which initially caused some confusion. However, through additional user research, we were able to gain a clearer understanding of users' core needs.
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Features we assumed would be intuitive were often confusing for users, ultimately providing valuable insights from our usability testing.
Lessons
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Users generally show reluctance toward sudden changes in the layout or systems of products
they regularly use. -
Within predefined user segments, it is essential to identify distinct groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of their behavioral patterns.
