Can you Turn it Off?

Abstract

Contemporary mobile devices continuously interrupt people with notifications in various and changing physical environments. As different places can have different social setting, understanding how disturbing an interruption might be to people around the user is not a straightforward task. To understand how users perceive disturbance in their social environment, we analyze the results of a 3-week user study with 50 participants using the experience sampling method and log analysis. We show that perceptions of disturbance are strongly related to the social norms surrounding the place, such as whether the place is considered private or public, even when controlling for the number of people around the user. Furthermore, users' perceptions of disturbance are also related to the activity carried out on the phone, and the subjective perceptions of isolation from other people in the space. We conclude the paper by discussing how our findings can be used to design new mobile devices that are aware of the social norms and their users' environmental context. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Ubiquitous and mobile computing design and evaluation methods.

The Attendant Card Set: A Research and Design Tool to Consider Perspectives of Attendants versus Users When Co-Experiencing Technology

“…For example, Gentile et al [7] presented some insights on how others present can discourage users of public displays, and Von Terzi et al [8] suggested that formerly public interactions with technology were experienced less positive when imagining the same interaction but without other persons present. Other authors investigated the effects of user interactions on attendants and revealed annoyance (e.g., [9,10]), disturbance (e.g., [11,12]) distraction (e.g., [13,14]), and embarrassment (e.g., [15,16]) as potential consequences.…”

Understanding the Experiences of Remote Workers: Opportunities for Ambient Workspaces at Home

“…The domestic spaces in which this remote work is conducted are generally limited and congested (Fan Ng, 2010). The remote home worker is thereby physically based in a highly unregulated and heterogenous domestic space-a space for which separation of work and home is a challenge (Stawarz et al, 2013;Toch et al, 2020). Remote workplace collaboration occurs predominantly through technological media; with all social activities reduced to two-dimensional screens (Deloitte LLP, 2018).…”

“…Remote workplace collaboration occurs predominantly through technological media; with all social activities reduced to two-dimensional screens (Deloitte LLP, 2018). This raises challenges of remote home workers feeling both isolated and yet constantly connected (Deloitte LLP, 2018), struggling to keep a balance between a domestic and technology mediated work-life (Toch et al, 2020).…”

“…Within this context, the argument for ambient technologies to support the remote home workers falls into place. Ambient systems have been previously used to mitigate "always-on" environments (Stawarz et al, 2013;Toch et al, 2020), and to support mental and physical wellbeing in various domestic and health applications (Weiser and Brown, 1995;Ludden and Meekhof, 2016;Bittner et al, 2019;Wohn et al, 2020).…”

“…The work of Petersen and Grønbaek et al (Takashima et al, 2016;Grønbaek et al, 2017;Grønbaek et al, 2020;Petersen et al, 2020) is an example of such interventions with a focus on informal collaborative work in office spaces; whereby shape changing interactive desks initiate dynamic work areas. Moving forward, bringing adaptive furniture examples to remote home workspaces would address enabling calmer transitions between domestic and work life (Stawarz et al, 2013;Toch et al, 2020), and assist with different aspects of remote connected work (Deloitte LLP, 2018).…”