Biases in human estimation of interruptibility: effects and implications for practice

People have developed a variety of conventions for negotiating face-to-face interruptions. The physical distribution of teams, however, together with the use of computer-mediated communication and awareness systems, fundamentally alters what information is available to a person considering an interruption of a remote collaborator. This paper presents a detailed comparison between selfreports of interruptibility, collected from participants over extended periods in their actual work environment, and estimates of this interruptibility, provided by a second set of participants based on audio and video recordings. Our results identify activities and environmental cues that affect participants' ability to correctly estimate interruptibility. We show, for example, that a closed office door had a significant effect on observers' estimation of interruptibility, but did not have an effect on participants' reports of their own interruptibility. We discuss our findings and their i...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Daniel Avrahami, James Fogarty, Scott E. Hudson
• Keywords: ACM Classification Keywords, Awareness Systems, CHI 2007, Computer-mediated Communication, Human Computer Interaction