ELECTRONIC MAIL - CASE-STUDY IN TASK-ORIENTED RESTRUCTURING OF APPLICATION DOMAIN

Most electronic mail (e-mail) software consists of a mail delivery sys tem and a user interface. One problem with current e-mail systems is t hat the user interface represents only a very thin layer on top of the delivery system. Studies have shown a wide level of diversity in the ways people work with e-mail systems and a wide range of tasks for whi ch it is used. This work shows the need for powerful tools to facilita te the restructuring of the e-mail domain to support users. In particu lar, the tools must be suitable for use by a variety of users who are not computer specialists. Perspectives on electronic mail are briefly reviewed and an empirical study described which provides a basis for d erivation of the higher-level concepts invoked and tasks undertaken by a range of users. The notion of a conceptual workspace is introduced as a framework for user-driven restructuring and processing of compone nts of an application domain. An instance of the framework is describe d in the form of a tool for dynamic restructuring of canonical e-mail components to form higher-level task-oriented constructs identified in the empirical study. The power and generality of this approach is ill ustrated by the ability of the tool to support other subsequently iden tified electronic communication tasks, in particular, the design, admi nistration and analysis of online questionnaires for a large-scale usa bility evaluation study.