Opportunities for Automating Email Processing

Most people can relate to email overload. The good news is that some of the hassle of dealing with email could be automated away.  We performed a mixed-methods, need-finding study to learn what kind of automated email handling users want, and what kinds of information and computation are needed to make those automations reality. Our results highlight the need for a richer data model for prioritizing messages and more ways for managing attention and leveraging the status of a user’s inbox and schedule. Half of the automation methods we considered are impossible in popular email clients, which means new design directions should be explored.

Soya Park is a PhD candidate in MIT CSAIL advised by David Karger. Her research focuses on helping people manage and automate their information repositories. Her research interests lie at the intersection of end-user programming, information retrieval, and human-computer interaction. Her PhD is supported by a Kwanjeong Fellowship. She won a Cadence’s Women in Technology scholarship.