Abstract

We all experience interruption in our daily lives when something causes a break in our actions, activities, or concentration. The number of channels through which we may interrupt each other has multiplied with the advent of communication and informa-tion technology, beginning with the telephone and increasing with email and instant messaging systems. Moreover, technology itself has become a source of interruption through calendar systems, software update reminders, and even battery monitor warn-ings. Interruption has become pervasive to the point where it is overwhelming. Con-sequently, research in the Human-Computer Interaction literature has focused largely on the negative effects of interruption. Yet, the fact that we continue to propagate and tolerate computer-based interruption suggests that there is some value associated with it. In this thesis, we explore how interruption can be harnessed for beneficial means by empirically investigating a design guideline that may help to mitigate negative effects: matching the amount of attention attracted by an interruption’s notification signal to the usefulness of the interruption content.

Citations