All talk and all action: strategies for managing voicemail messages

Abstract

Voicemail is a pervasive technology, but we know little about how users manage voice messages in executing everyday work. We analyze server logs, user surveys and interviews to identify three problems users experience in managing their voicemail: scanning, information extraction and search. We also isolate three distinct voicemail processing strategies, and discuss the relative merits of each strategy. We make recommendations about how voicemail might be redesigned to better address these problems and support these strategies.