The Impact of Private and Work-Related Smartphone Usage on Interruptibility
This work addresses the need for holistic concepts to explain interruptibility for users of attention and interruption management systems in ubiquitous computing, but it is incremental as it builds on existing theories and uses a small preliminary study.
The paper tackled the problem of understanding interruptibility by correlating private and work-related smartphone usage with individuals' interruptibility strategies, finding that application sequences on smartphones correlate with social roles and specific strategies like integrating, combining, or segmenting engagements.
In the last decade, the effects of interruptions through mobile notifications have been extensively researched in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Breakpoints in tasks and activities, cognitive load, and personality traits have all been shown to correlate with individuals' interruptibility. However, concepts that explain interruptibility in a broader sense are needed to provide a holistic understanding of its characteristics. In this paper, we build upon the theory of social roles to conceptualize and investigate the correlation between individuals' private and work-related smartphone usage and their interruptibility. Through our preliminary study with four participants over 11 weeks, we found that application sequences on smartphones correlate with individuals' private and work roles. We observed that participants engaged in these roles tend to follow specific interruptibility strategies - integrating, combining, or segmenting private and work-related engagements. Understanding these strategies breaks new ground for attention and interruption management systems in ubiquitous computing.