Why Did the User Open the Email? - A Case Study in User Engagement

Pankati Patel, Uko Ebreso, Alexander Fisher, Patricia Morreale

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This case study investigates methods to increase user engagement within an organization. An academic department at a university encourages students to participate in career and academic development opportunities, which are regularly distributed by email. Students have a low engagement with the emails as approximately 30% students view emails and less than 5% of the students interact with hyperlinks embedded within the text. Students are missing valuable opportunities, crucial to their professional and academic development. In this research, a methodology for broadcast communication to a community of students has been developed. First, a pre-survey was given to a wide demographic of students. Utilizing the responses, the same information, drafted using different techniques, was broadcasted to various categories of students. Data was collected on student engagement and compared to answer the research questions on why student engagement is low: (1) Does the presence of an incentive have an impact on a student’s engagement? (2) Will broadcasting to a targeted demographic impact student engagement? (3) Does the composition of the information delivered impact student engagement? Interviews, focus groups, and a post-survey were used to gather and triangulate data. Results showed that user engagement doubled with more than 50% of the users opening the engineered email communication. Recommendations include generalizing the subject line, including portable incentives, and considering organizational origination.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Papers - 25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2023, Proceedings
EditorsMasaaki Kurosu, Ayako Hashizume, Aaron Marcus, Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Marcelo M. Soares, Don Harris, Wen-Chin Li, Dylan D. Schmorrow, Cali M. Fidopiastis, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages179-193
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)9783031480379
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2023 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 23 Jul 202328 Jul 2023

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume14054 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2023
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period23/07/2328/07/23

Keywords

  • Broadcast Communication
  • Human computer interaction
  • User Engagement

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