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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
| Interruptions are a central aspect of working life. The prevalence of remote coworkers and the use of mobile technology mean that interruptions are more prevalent, and workers have to learn to manage availability. To understand general issues in availability management, we carried out a naturalistic study of how interruptions are handled in face-to-face situations. We found that availability management requires negotiation, that it is also highly dependent on awareness about the availability of others, and that it demands cognitive effort to shift attention to the interruption. On the basis of these observations we developed a technology The Negotiator that embodies three main design requirements (a) support for negotiation (b) contextual information about when a recipient is available for a call (c) lightweightness to reduce attentional overhead. We carried out an experimental study of interruption management using this technology. The interface satisfied the original design requirements: people were able to use it effectively to negotiate times to talk while successfully carrying out an intellectually demanding activity. Contrary to our expectations, however, people preferred take responsibility for returning calls rather than delegating these, and they preferred to schedule calls as soon as possible, rather than deferring these. We suggest that | |||||||||||||||||
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