We apply visualization techniques to user profiles and repository metadata from the GitHub source code hosting service. Our motivation is to identify patterns within this development community that might otherwise remain obscured. Such patterns include the effect of geographic distance on developer relationships, social connectivity and influence among cities, and variation in projectspecific contribution styles (e.g., centralized vs. distributed). Our analysis examines directed graphs in which nodes represent users' geographic locations and edges represent (a) follower relationships, (b) successive commits, or (c) contributions to the same project. We inspect this data using a set of visualization techniques: geo-scatter maps, small multiple displays, and matrix diagrams. Using these representations, and tools based on them, we develop hypotheses about the larger GitHub community that would be difficult to discern using traditional lists, tables, or descriptive statistics. These methods are not intended to provide conclusive answers; instead, they provide a way for researchers to explore the question space and communicate initial insights.

With smartphones, tablets and laptops, it has become easier than ever to multitask constantly. How does the design of devices and applications encourage or discourage multitasking behavior? Given the ease and seamlessness of switching between goal-oriented tasks and distractions in a browser, and the propensity to lose track of time, our design team focused on increasing awareness of switching between browser tabs, and on increasing awareness of how time is spent within tabs. We designed a browser plug-in that automatically categorized URLs as work or non-work, altered tab color, size and placement, and added a status bar that displayed the total amount of time spent on a tab and overall in work/non-work mode. We conducted a two-week field study to evaluate the effects on browsing behavior. We found that modifying the browser design influenced multitasking: participants spent less time on non-work tabs, switched between tabs less frequently and spent more time on work-related websites.

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