LinearVis II: Towards More Usable Email Browsing

The results of previous experiments indicated that presenting email data graphically can significantly improve the usability of browsing email messages. However, the results also highlighted some limitations that can negatively affect usersʹ performance. These results were used as a basis to perform a further exploratory study. This paper describes an experimental email tool, called LinearVis II, which was developed to facilitate the browsing of email messages. It was composed of multiple synchronised views that enable users accessing email messages by date, senders and subject at glance from the main view without using typical menus. Attached items can also be accessed from the main view in LinearVis II. In order to investigate the usefulness of browsing email messages in this proposed tool, a comparative usability study was carried out with a typical email client. The obtained data was analysed based on the three well known usability metrics: effectiveness, efficiency and usersʹ satisfaction. The results showed a significant improvement in the usability of browsing email messages in LinearVis II. The results also showed that each component of the proposed tool improved the accessibility of required email messages when compared to typical methods.