Email as a notification mechanism

Source

Email has many uses

Looking at my inbox today, I see email that is used for many things other than inter-personal communication. Email is used for:

  • Correspondence - actual communication with another human
  • Receipts - documents like you might get in the physical mail
  • Login support - "We've sent a code to your email to verify it's you."
  • Notifications
    • Statement is available
    • Bill notice
    • Account security alerts
    • Package tracking

Most of these are not inter-personal communication. So why do we use email for most of those things?

Some email was a replacement for sending me a physical letter, such as the statement or bill examples. In a physical letter, the actual details of the statement or bill would be included, not just a notification of the existence of a statement or bill.

Since email was insecure for so long, sending a notification was the more secure option: notify the customer that the document exists and then the customer has to prove who they are to get access to the document.

But what if...

What if there was another mechanism for notifications? Something like the notifications on your phone or computer:

"Company X would like to send you notifications that your statement is available.  (Accept, Deny)"

In that scenario, the company would have to prove they are who they say they are to the makers of the operating system.

Better yet, what if companies managed encryption keys along with my user account information? Then the company could send me my statement via email more securely, not just a notification of the statement.

Why notification emails bother me

Notification email bothers me because the sender is putting more work on me. I once heard an email inbox described as a "world writable todo list".

When I get a notification email:

  • Read the email
  • Make a note to go get the statement, or
  • Login to the website, possibly with a "login support" email
  • Find the statement
  • View or download the statement

When I get a physical statement:

  • Open the envelope
  • View the statement
  • If I want an electronic version, scan it

I have enough to do without navigating yet another different website to get my statement.

In summary

Email is used for too many things that are not correspondence with another human. Many of those uses produce a bad user experience. We've become accustomed to this bad experience, but I believe that we can do better.