REPLYING TO EMAIL WITH STRUCTURED RESPONSES

Structured response objects include buttons, menus and formatted field s that an email sender can insert in a message to elicit predetermined responses from recipients. Two studies explored the usefulness of str uctured response objects in meeting the needs of everyday email. In St udy 1, subjective content classifications suggested that more than hal f of typical email messages are requests or answers to requests. Furth er, a significant proportion of requests and answers could be expresse d as structured response objects, the most common one being the choice of a single item from a predetermined list. Study 2 experimentally de termined social factors that affect preference for structured response s compared with free form text. It found an overall preference for rep lying with structured responses compared with text. But, in accordance with social richness theories, this preference was reduced for ambigu ous messages and for those of a personal nature. Together, these resul ts suggest that structured response objects can be a useful tool to in crease the convenience and efficiency of electronic messaging. (C) 199 8 Academic Press.