[Design] the button I want

[Kaitlin Duck Sherwood]

I resoundingly endorse the "Dismiss" button.

Most people use their inbox as a "to-do" list, a single place where 
they can see the messages that they still need to read, reply to, 
and/or act upon.   Many (if not most) people have a hard time keeping 
track of their "to-do" items when they are spread across multiple 
folders.

Many users delete them as soon as they are "done" with them -- i.e. 
they don't need to read, reply to, or act upon them.  This is a very 
easy way to separate "done" messages from "to-do" messages.

However, many users like keeping old messages around.  Unfortunately, 
filing messages is tedious and cognitively difficult.  A user has to 
figure out which folder something belongs in (perhaps making a new 
folder), then drag and drop the message to the right folder.  I 
frequently "miss" the folder, which means that I have to open the 
folder that I accidentally dropped it in, find the message, and drag 
it out and into the proper folder.  Arg!

This is difficult enough that a lot of people don't file at all -- 
but then "to-do" messages are all jumbled up with "done" messages, 
making it difficult to see "to-do" messages.  Arg!

"Read" is NOT the same as "done."  I am "done" with spam before I 
read it.  Similarly, I sometimes need more information before I can 
respond to a message, so it is be "read" but not "done".

So I actually think Chandler should have three buttons right next to 
each other: "Done" ("Dismiss"), "Show next message", and "Delete".

I don't care what happens to the message when I hit "Done" -- move it 
to a folder, flag it, unflag it, whatever -- but I *do* want it to 
disappear from my list of "to-do" messages.


A quick note on terminology -- "dismissed/done" vs. "archived".  The 
word "archive" connotes to me that it is difficult to get to, e.g. on 
a backup tape.  I refer to my recent "done" messages regularly.  I 
refer to them less frequently as they age.  I almost never look at 
messages that are over two years old.  I think there are thus three 
tiers of messages:
	"to-do"  (requires an action on my part)
	"done"   (no action required, but I'm likely to refer to it)
	"archive" (no action, but there is a remote chance I might want to
			refer to it)


Citation: I highly recommend Whittaker and Sidner's article _Email 
Overload: Exploring Personal Information Management of Email_:
	http://www.research.att.com/~stevew/emlch96.pdf
"Overload" here is used in the sense of "overloaded operators", not 
as in "overloaded by too much work".
-- 
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood
Author of the _Overcome Email Overload_ series, http://www.EmailOverload.com