E-Mail Notifications: Making Unsubscription Easy

Unsubscribing email newsletters and other email notification services can be an unpleasant and time-consuming experience. Most unsubscribe problems can be avoided by making the subscribers email visible and linking to an unsubscribe page in all emails.

Bohmann, Kristoffer. Bohmann Usability (2001). Articles>Usability>Email

Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion

Newsletter usability has increased since our last study, but the competition for users' attention has also grown with the ever-increasing glut of information.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Marketing>Email

Mailing List Usability

E-mail lists are an e-marketers dream: mailing lists provide a highly targeted way of reaching people; email doesn't require you to wait until the customer remembers to go visit your site. Mailing lists allow you to extend the footprint of your website. In the literal sense (get space in the user's inbox and not just in the browser). And in the more interesting metaphorical sense: More services become possible when you can reach out to users and provide them with time-dependent information. Just remember the push fiasco: it is not the goal to lay claim to ever-increasing amounts of the users time; prompt them just enough to be useful but not so much that the email becomes a burden. Users will unsubscribe faster than you can say 'information overload.'

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Usability>Email

Targeted Email Newsletters Show Continued Strength

E-newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely are often preferred over other media. However, a new study found that only 11% of newsletters were read thoroughly, so layout and content scannability are paramount.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Articles>Usability>Mailing Lists>Email

The Usability of Email Subject Lines

Email is very important to a lot of people and companies. However, very little usability research has been done on email, specifically email subject lines. This article is a summary of a research report written by WebWord on the topic and contains several results. The basic finding from the research is that effective email subject lines are very short, very meaningful, and personal.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Articles>Usability>Correspondence>Email

Using Email to Promote Usability

One of the most effective and inexpensive tools for educating your market is email. Here's how to use email to keep your visibility high and keep in touch with everyone in your network -- because you never know where the work is going to come from.

Benun, Ilise. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Usability>Email

Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages

Automated email can improve customer service, strengthen relationships, and help websites bypass search engines. But most messages fared poorly in user testing and didn't fulfill this potential.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Email