intro

My thesis work explores possible future forms of email. Rather than drawing a single line from the present to what the future should hold, I sought to survey the overall terrain, explore ideas through prototyping and then speculate on the potential impacts, implications and emerging themes of those ideas. This is what I’ve discovered.

Whether we love email, hate email or love-hate email, our inboxes are currently a source of stress and frustration. Using visualization, metaphor, and embodiment to combine analytical research with poetic perspective, designers can develop and display the context surrounding email. Rich narratives already exist inside our inboxes. How might we access these stories? How can email become a place for exploration, discovery and self-reflection?

Email’s development is largely driven by empirical research. Through the identification of problems, prototyping and rigorous statistical user testing, email researchers have created a very dense field of inquiry from a scientific and academic perspective. On the other end of the spectrum, media artists have also created a large amount of email-related work that reflects an artistic perspective. Through my thesis work I hope to open a space for questioning between these existing sets. The emotionality of design distinguishes it from the rationality of science. The difference between art and design is more subtle, but no less significant. Art creates a statement. Design starts a conversation. Through this work, I hope to start a dialogue by introducing new ways of looking at our email.