RemindMe: Plugging a Reminder Manager into Email for Enhancing Workplace Responsiveness

Abstract

Reminding others to do something or bringing something to someone's attention by sending reminders is common in the workplace. Our goal was to create a system to reduce the cognitive overhead for employees to manage their email, specifically the incoming and outgoing requests with their colleagues and others. We build on prior research on social request management, interruptions, and cognitive psychology in the design of such a system that includes an email reminder creation algorithm, with a built-in learning mechanism for improving such reminders over time, and a reminder delivery user interface. The system is delivered to users through a browser plugin, allowing it to be built on top of an existing web-based email system within an enterprise.