The impact of IT mindfulness on complex task performance

Abstract

Travel bookings are time-consuming as many HICSS participants know. Finding suitable flights from Europe with minimal flying times, layovers long enough to catch the next flight but not too long takes time and can be considered a complex task. However, the travel search engines are quite easy to use without many advanced features and using them creatively does not seem probable. We set out to study whether information technology (IT) mindfulness or mindlessness have any impact on complex task performance. IT mindfulness has been found to affect the use of advanced features and finding new ways to use software. Doing something on automatic pilot has been considered to be mindless. We gave students a complex booking task and the survey results on their performance reveal the impact of IT mindfulness.