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The Unheard Word

One woman's slightly skewed views

How Devices Affect Email Comprehension

I’ve been very busy in the last week or two and have had several items of interest open in my news reader (NetNewsWire) to remind me to blog about them. By now they’re old news but this is one I think is worth noting, for those who haven’t yet seen it.

In short, the device that is used to read email is likely to influence the kind of response received. When a user reads email via a handheld device, there’s a good chance they’re on the road and/or in a hurry and are likely to skim. This isn’t helped by the lack of screen real estate and the comparative difficulty of typing a response (which encourages brevity, and can in itself lead to lack of clarity). As a result, email replies sent from such devices often show a lack of comprehension of the meaning of the original email.

Could be handy to keep in mind.

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