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BLOG  |  APRIL, 2009

Visualizing Email

April 2, 2009 at 8:00 am
by Chris

Below is a graph showing one work week's worth of email received. I'm not sure why, but Wednesday was a big day for email. I'll have to see if this is a recurring trend.



Below is a graph showing one day's worth of email. Again, the spike is in the middle. But with this graph, I wasn't surprised to see when the spikes were. I've always noticed that I tend to get a rush of emails right before lunch and right before the end of the day. Have you noticed any similar trends? Also, I think this is the prettier graph... just sayin'.



Update (04/03/2009): After seeing Alex's comment (below), I thought I'd share some of the original sketches that I had in my notebook that eventually became the graphs like those below. Alex asked if I run some kind of script to collect and visualize this data. Sadly, my approach is much more old-fashioned and less sophisticated. I manually collect the data I'm looking for, sketch it out on paper, then create a graph using Photoshop. I wouldn't mind a more automated process, but I also find this one kind of fun. (Note: the graphs sketched below also led to those visualizations on my post about newsletter tracking stats and my post about call to action response stats.


Comments
Alex | April 3, 2009 10:16 AM

Chris, how did you create these graphs? Do you input your data into a particular program or write some kind of script to run through your email account?
Chris Butler | April 3, 2009 11:07 AM

Alex,

Good question! Sadly, my approach is much more old-fashioned and less sophisticated. I manually collect the data I'm looking for, sketch it out on paper, then create a graph using Photoshop. I wouldn't mind a more automated process, but I also find this one kind of fun. I've added an image above that I put together from several scans of those original sketches.

Thanks for commenting,

Chris
Brian | April 3, 2009 11:59 AM

Chris,

The capitalized "WHY THERE" worries me a little bit. Rest assured, you are not the only one interested in graphing their e-mail traffic.

Chris's alias on Google Labs is lampmaker?

I never thought of looking at trends within my e-mail traffic, but it would definitely allow you to become more efficient if you can work around the hi's and lo's of your inbox.

Brian

Chris Butler | April 3, 2009 12:11 PM

Brian,

That text in full is "Why there is no time for sleeping." Don't worry, though. I do sleep enough. That Google Groups question wasn't from me, but it is a good idea.

Chris
Richard | April 6, 2009 11:01 PM

Visualization is totally hot right now.
Chris Butler | April 8, 2009 11:50 AM

Richard,

You're right. Have you seen the Information Aesthetics blog?

Chris