ABSTRACT
Desktop notifications are designed to provide awareness of information while a user is attending to a primary task. Unfortunately the awareness can come with the price of disruption to the focal task. We review results of a field study on the use and perceived value of email notifications in the workplace. We recorded users' interactions with software applications for two weeks and studied how notifications or their forced absence influenced users' quest for awareness of new email arrival, as well as the impact of notifications on their overall task focus. Results showed that users view notifications as a mechanism to provide passive awareness rather than a trigger to switch tasks. Turing off notifications cause some users to self interrupt more to explicitly monitor email arrival, while others appear to be able to better focus on their tasks. Users acknowledge notifications as disruptive, yet opt for them because of their perceived value in providing awareness.
- Bailey, B.P. and Konstan, J.A. On the Need for Attention Aware Systems: Measuring Effects of Interruption on Task Performance, Error Rate, and Affective State. Journal of Computers in Human Behavior, 22 (4). 709--732.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Cutrell, E., Czerwinski, M. and Horvitz, E., Notification, Disruption and Memory: Effects of Messaging Interruptions on Memory and Performance. in Proceedings of the IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, (Tokyo, Japan, 2001), 263--269.Google Scholar
- Czerwinski, M., Horvitz, E. and Wilhite, S., A diary study of task switching and interruptions. in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (2004), 175--182. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Horvitz, E., Apacible, J. and Subramani, M. Balancing Awareness and Interruption: Investigation of Notification Deferral Policies. Ardissono, L., Brna, P. and Mitrovic, A. eds. User Modeling 2005, 10th International Conference, Springer, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 2005, 433--437. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Horvitz, E., Jacobs, A. and Hovel, D. Attention-Sensitive Alerting Conference Proceedings on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, 1999, 305--313. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Iqbal, S.T. and Bailey, B.P., Effects of Intelligent Notification Management on Users and Their Tasks. in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (Florence, Italy, 2008), 93--102. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Iqbal, S.T. and Horvitz, E., Disruption and Recovery of Computing Tasks: Field Study, Analysis and Directions. in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (San Jose, California, USA, 2007), 677--686. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mark, G., Gonzalez, V.M. and Harris, J. No task left behind?: examining the nature of fragmented work in Proceeding of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems ACM Press, Portland, Oregon, USA 2005, 321--330 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pashler, H. and Johnston, J.C. Attentional Limitations in Dual Task Performance. in Pashler, H. ed., Psychology Press/Erbaum (UK) Taylor & Francis, Hove, England, UK, 1998, 155--189.Google Scholar
- Wickens, C.D. Multiple Resources and Performance Prediction. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science, 3 (2). 159--177.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Notifications and awareness: a field study of alert usage and preferences
Recommendations
Embodied notifications: implicit notifications through electrical muscle stimulation
MobileHCI '16: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services AdjunctNotifications are an important function of mobile devices. They inform users about important events such as incoming messages or upcoming events. Prior work, however, showed that notifications can be disruptive which will become worse with the ...
Assessing the Relationship between Technical Affinity, Stress and Notifications on Smartphones
MobileHCI '15: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services AdjunctSmartphones have become an indispensable part of everyday life. By this time, push notifications are at the core of many apps, proactively pushing new content to users. These notifications may raise awareness, but also have the downside of being ...
The Attention Kitchen: Comparing Modalities for Smart Home Notifications in a Cooking Scenario
MUM '21: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous MultimediaA steadily increasing number of notifications, auditory, visual or ambient, competes for the user’s attention. Frequent unsuitable notifications can lead to a breakdown in efficiency and increase error rates. This paper compares the effectiveness, ...
Comments