Mediator and medium: doors as interruption gateways and aesthetic displays

ABSTRACT

Office doors are more than entrances to rooms, they are entrances to a person's time and attention. People can mediate access to themselves by choosing whether to leave their door open or closed when they are in their office. Doors also serve as a medium for communication, where people can broadcast individual messages to passersby, or accept messages from others who stopped by when the door was closed. These qualities make the door an excellent location for designing solutions that help people better manage their time and attention. In this paper, we present a study of doors, derive design insights from the study, and then realize some of these insights in two cooperating implementations deployed in our workplace.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • HCI theory, concepts and models

  • Interaction design

    • Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms