While problems with Spam make headlines, many organizations are plagued with poor email usability. This is defined as anything that slows down the actual comprehension of the email message. We estimate that poor email usability can cost an organization of 1,000 people between $9,000 and $81,000 a year. More for larger organizations.
Examples of poor email usability
Poor email usability comes in a variety of flavors. The first flavor is the "Guess what this is about?" email. It's characterized by a vague subject line that forces users to open the email. Good examples of this along with our commentary include:
1) "Meeting time changed" You only have 12 meetings scheduled this week so you have no choice but to open the email to find out which one has changed.
2) "New HR policy statement" yawn- "No Christmas bonuses next year" might get my attention.
3) "Last version changed" Houston we have a problem. If you are using email to review versions of documents, you are really in trouble
4) "Blank" either the author forgot to put the title in or its really bad news
We are sure you can think of more innocuous subject titles. All of the above subject lines contain empty content. The authors of these emails are stingy with words and force a recipient to open the email to find out the real message. If only life was that simple.
Sometimes even when you open an email, the information is locked up. For example, take a look at the email below. Who needs encryption with this email? You really have to want the information very badly to get through it. Thus the name "Pyracanthra or firethorn." Try reading this without getting frustrated.
The unusual text font and relatively large paragraph really slows the reader down. The solution is to keep the fonts readable. Verdana, Courier, Arial or Times New Roman would have been fine. We would have broken up the paragraph too. Ultimately an email like this may force a user to print the email. Thus more time is wasted.
Lets take a look at another one of our favorites. We call it the "Chinese Wall of Words." It is very common on websites, but also finds it way into email.
Usually these emails are characterized by multiple facts in a single paragraph. They ultimately force a reader to do one of two things: print out the email or just delete it. We think the former is more prevalent.
What about those costs?
We estimated that the costs of poor email usability are between $9,000 and $81,000 annually for an organization of 1,000 people (information workers). The higher range is attributable to users who have to print the email to actually comprehend it.
Here are our assumptions:
1) 1,000 employees receive on average 35 emails per day, excluding spam
2) All employees work about 240 days a year
3) Of the 8.4 million emails they receive anually, 1.0 percent have poor usability
4) The average salary of an information worker is $35 per hour
5) It takes between 10 seconds to 90 seconds to comprehend the content of these email either online or by printing the email out and then reading it. Longer in most cases if your printer is not close by.
Larger organizations are more likely to suffer higher costs and lost productivity than smaller ones. Keep in mind that the above costs are average. They can be a lot higher if critical information in an email is overlooked. For example, imagine that the phrase, "the deadline for filing appeals is in two weeks," was buried in our Firethorn email.
Poor usability for managers is a more significant problem since they typically receive more email. These folks could certainly benefit from email that has good usability.
Some solutions
Here's what you can do to reduce those costs. The objective is to enable email recipients to comprehend your message without having to print out the message.
a) Insist on subject lines that convey real information. Most email subject lines will accept a URL.
b) Write like a reporter- the subject line should get to the point with detail following it, not the other way around. "We need volunteers on August 8th to work with summer interns.....
c) Stay away from background colors and exotic fonts. Use Times New Roman, Verdana, Courier or Arial
d) Chunk content, use bullets and make very word count. Avoid long paragraphs, especially if the line length exceeds 72 characters.
e) Don't assume that your professional staff are good writers. They may be, but this seldom results in conveying ideas efficiently. They need training. Your press division or public affairs department is a good place to look for people who can train others in the art of reducing voluminous and complicated content into a few paragraphs.
Please feel free to share your "best of the worst" emails with us.
Comments