Post APSvfo9p77ZxAdd6Rc by aredridel@anarchism.space
(DIR) More posts by aredridel@anarchism.space
(DIR) Post #APSvfmCwMYsr7j4Z1c by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T14:24:22Z
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"Just use CWs like subject lines"People's subject lines: "Re: re: re: re: your healthcare"Body: "Wanna get coffee?"
(DIR) Post #APSvfo9p77ZxAdd6Rc by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:11:29Z
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I know the idea seems simple but people are actually really bad at email subject lines. I used to teach this informally to my customers—mostly an over-65 population of rural folks. Mostly slightly wealthy retirees; mostly educated. They really struggled.Some of this is a UI problem: what you call something and how you frame it really matters. Subject lines are big, blank, and up front. They are an open ended text field, prompting in a different context than displayed.
(DIR) Post #APSvfpmV4o6wCsjVMu by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:13:33Z
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Subject lines are also _above_ the body, and people tend to execute user interfaces to to bottom, especially when they're form-like.This means that people either need to try to describe an email they have not written yet, or need to loop back. Or not try. Mostly: they don't try. The cognitive load is too high, and they struggle to know what "the right way" is. They cannot empathize enough with a hypothetical receiver to guess the context it will be received in accurately, and they bail out.
(DIR) Post #APSvfrDpifZKfwWqbw by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:16:56Z
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This is actually the kind of categorization problem that autistic folks tend to be really _good_ at, and good at doing, by the way. Most people however are not good at it.And there are _no_ social cues present for an email subject. Not even reference to your own email that you've not written.
(DIR) Post #APSvfsaucLckvoKnDs by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:20:36Z
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I used to teach the military style BLUF: bottom line up front. I'd say "write your email. Okay, now what's the most important part, probably near the end. Conclusion, or action you want them to take. There's your subject line. Also it's okay to make it the first line too."If they're really clever, I'd teach them what TL;DR means.
(DIR) Post #APSvftz3S4WvEydaUa by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:21:07Z
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A significant number of people struggled with even this technique: they did not know and could not identify the topic of their email, even after writing it. This runs deep in their entire communication patterns, and I could not find a way to reach them in a meaningful way. I could maybe, _maybe_ get them to mark tone: "Happy (event)" "Hey, this is important" and "Just chatting" as a subject line, worded as appropriate for their context.
(DIR) Post #APSvfvGSgq33DFn0GO by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T15:25:43Z
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oh, context: "my customers"—I used to run a small internet service provider in a rural area of Colorado. I was literally the person helping all levels of getting older people to send email, often for the first time ever.
(DIR) Post #APSwT6Ujj084ESuxJw by lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me
2022-11-10T16:11:55.675059Z
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@aredridel I think some people also use them a bit like titles for articles and while it's not exactly this, I think it might be something that people are familiar enough with?
(DIR) Post #APSy7aNK9JdSRUJkvI by aredridel@anarchism.space
2022-11-10T16:20:37Z
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@lanodan Yup. But most people's idea of articles is more People magazine than something published by PLOS. And the titles there are bait :/