Usability Forum

Note to self...

By Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez. Monday, August 7, 2006 6:30:27 PM

From Steve Jobs during WWDC on Mail enhancements-

...Second thing is Notes. I send a lot of notes to myself because my inbox is really where I need to be reminded of things. There's gotta be a better way to do this that doesn't get lost among the others. They show up right in your inbox but there's also a special inbox that coagulates them all together."-Engadget coverage of WWDC (emphasis mine)

...I do the same thing. I’ve tried online versions of to-do lists, MS Outlook, etc etc… but nothing seems to have stuck like simply sending an email to myself. I’d be interested in hearing/seeing more about Apple’s solution to this problem in the days to come.

Anytime I hear "there's got to be a better way...," for everyday things like to-do lists, my ears perk up a bit and I listen intently. I love it when people do find better ways.

Google on the goThe wonderful world of wondering widgets

Comments

Kenneth Maagekmaage # Tuesday, August 8, 2006 12:15:47 PM

Strange that you should mention this. I'm currently involved in a project to study this very thing: What do people use email for? What goals are they really trying to accomplish?

We've been finding some interesting things... Usability principle: Watch users. Study them. See what they do.

And there is always a better way. You need time to study people; understand their needs and goals. Then you need the ability to test different ways of meeting their needs; faster and easier ways to accomplish their goals.

If you build it [to help users accomplish their goals], they will come.

DaveStu_Pedasso # Tuesday, August 8, 2006 1:04:28 PM

I use yahoo mail for reminders, with a filter set up to send messages from myself to a special folder so I always have my reminders/links at hand where I can check them easily without any other clutter.

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez # Tuesday, August 8, 2006 1:16:40 PM

Agreed- it's so easy to use that we've adopted it well beyond its intended use...

kmaage-
I wonder if you're finding the following:
-"near" real time conversation...Borderline IM type uses.
-to-do, personal reminders
-Meeting collaboration
-Broadcast announcements (announce to many)
-File storage I use webmail to hold files I'll want to get at in the next several days...

Those are just the first few I have I'd be curious to know what the results of the study show. It's a broad topic and as such, hard to nail down, but there are certainly things like those listed above where email can be used more effectively (or not used at all)

Kenneth Maagekmaage # Wednesday, August 9, 2006 7:51:20 AM

It's a broad topic and as such, hard to nail down

True, true. The things you talk about are ways to accomplish underlying goals. Why broadcast anouncements? Why real time conversation? Those are the questions we're trying to answer in this study, because when you look deeper you start to lose the focus on the tools (which is a good thing) and you begin to see what users are really trying to do. For instance: Someone said "I need to be able to organize my email into folders." But the more we talked with her, the more we see that the underlying goal is really to...

get praise from the people she works with
by being a reliable person
by being prepared to answer any questions about a project
by having a place to reference all project correspondence
by organizing email into folders.

We're finding that (in a work setting, where we're studying) the concept of "email" is fading away and we're discovering that concepts like "projects" and "to do lists" are much more relevant.