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ETHNOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
ABOUT NEGOTIATING FACE2FACE INTERRUPTIONS AT THE OFFICE 2004 VISTA (published at CHI 2005) My adventure with designing awareness solutions for the office has started when I was still working at Oce Technologies. There, we have done a design project called 'Vista' aiming at providing away-from-the-office contextual information about people and activities at the office. The design solution took a form of a large display located at the coffee corner, which displayed short descriptions about projects currently run at the research department of Oce and also about people working there. The user evaluation showed that people appreciated access to such information, however, there was a more intriguing aspect noticeable in the study. The data presented on the display was collected prior to the deployment of the prototype. Once the prototype was installed, very soon we saw people coming and asking to change some personal information because they felt they were not giving right impression to their colleagues. This one and other examples made me think that awareness solutions could not only help with strictly contextual information but could also provide opportunities for people to act on a more social level and be able to create their own image. Thus, I have decided to pursue this line of thinking and began my PhD project set out to establish the extent, to which awareness solutions can support people in their informal communication at the office. 2005 Study of adminitsrative assistants (published at CHI 2006) Firstly, we have observed how interruptions are handled by administrative assistants to see what criteria they apply when evaluating each new communicative attempt. The study took place in the offices of the assistants and we observed them for a day each combining techniques such as observations, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We saw that the importance, the urgency of the interruption subject and also the importance of the interrupter seemed to be crucial factors in negotiating Face2Face interruptions. With respect to the perceived availability level of the interruptee, we confirmed the applicability of the results of Fogarty et al. Finally, perceived interruption time-demand was another determinant we have identified in this study. 2006 User study (to be first presented at the INTERACT 2007 DC) After we saw how administrative assistants handle F2F interruptions we set out to find out how regular office workers approach the interruption negotiation. We wanted to investigate what is the impact interruptors have on the interruption negotiation and how they influence the availability status of the interruptee and also the interruption outcome. We also wanted to observe in what moment of the interruption negotiation process an additional system support might be recommended. In order to meet these objectives we have conducted a study in two parts: (i)an interview study that aimed at classifying factors that influence the strategy both actors choose for and the actions occurring during the interruption negotiation processand (ii) a diary study that aimed at analyzing the influence of previously identified set of factors on the interruption outcome. The interview study resulted in identifying two actions occuring during interruption negotiation process: visual inspection and verbal negotiation. Furthermore, we have identified the three groups of motivations influencing both interruptors and interruptees in the way they approach the interruption: social proximity, nature of hte interruption subject and anticipated interruption duration. The diary study allowed us to assess how each of these mortivators impacts the interuption outcome. We have noticed that team members tended to choose interruption moments, so the interruption subject would be thoroughly attended, even if it meant that the interruption would be postponed rather than handled immediately. Interruptions initiated by group members were more often handled immediately but sometimes would compromise the quality of the feedback provided to the interruptor. Furthermore, we saw that next to the availability of the interruptee, which is commonly discussed as a main interruption determinant, factors determined by the interruptor (time demand, urgency and importance) were confirmed to be equally important for deciding whether to handle interruptions immediately or not. 2006/2007 Experiment (accepted at the ECSCW 2007 conference) While taking the previous results into consideration, we continued a line of experiments after McFarlane and Dabbish and Kraut as the next step in our research. Our experiment tested individualistic and altruistic behaviours displayed by interruptors and interruptees when handling interruptions in two different social conditions. Furthermore, it tests the impact of the system protecting the interruptee on the change of behaviours of both interruption actors. The results indicate that interruption behaviours are affected by the visibility of the related costs imposed by the relevant interruption behaviour. Interruption content, due to its always visible costs seems to be always set to provide high value outcome. Time is not always equally condidered by either interruptor or the interruptee because the costs of it related both to the social relationship between the actors and also to their individual performance. Thus with each interruption occurence both the interuptor and the interruptee would assess what would impose a higher cost and act according to this assesement. The conclusion that social conditions do not alone predict participants' interruption behaviour supports interruptees' reflections on their system preference: disregarding social conditions their preferences changed according to their individual performance. OTHER RESEARCH 2007 Evaluation of the Smart Signs system Most of the time wayfinding is everything but a relaxing process as getting where one wants often requires considerable mental effort for succeeding in the cognitive mapping process. Therefore in the framework of the Smart Surroundings project we have proposed Smart Signs - a ubiquitous indoor navigation system constructed out of a series of monitors embeded into the environment, which are equipped with wireless smart sensor network. The first evaluation of the system has shown that the time reduction in reaching the predefinded destination when using Smart Signs is significant. Olso the understandability, efficiency and satisfaction level scored significantly comparing to the traditional way of navigating indoor spaces. The participants have found the Smart Signs system easy to learn and to understand. Once using the system gave them enough experience to grasp its rules. The participants have also found it a timely solution saving them time searching for other navigational clues. Finally, they have immediately developed trust towards the system and liked the fact that the system has not disappointed them even if sometimes they experienced troubles comprehending its messages. |
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