THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Improving IM Collaboration in the Workplace Kirstin Williams COMP

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL FTF Interactions +Visual awareness of target’s presence +Visual awareness of target’s workload +Shared sense of value of interruption +Immediate sense of response urgency and time demand –Can be intrusive –Unwanted prolonged discussions –No multitasking –Greater time demands

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM Collaboration + Less intrusive +Multitasking +Quick and spontaneous with little additional effort +140M plus users –Social Play?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace Are people actually using IM for work??

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL AT&T Research Study ● 437 participants – Used client for at least a week ● Spanned 16 months ● Chat content analysis – Most users at work

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Nature of IM at Work Simple info exchange –91.4% work-related Scheduling –85.7% work-related No Response –Reminders Work is largest category –60% of conversations Figure published in “The Character, Functions, and Styles of Instant Messaging in the Workplace”

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Nature of IM at Work Work –Work Talk –Work-Related Talk –Doing Work Figures published in “The Character, Functions, and Styles of Instant Messaging in the Workplace”

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace Are people taking advantage of the ability to perform multiple tasks?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Multitasking ● 86% of all users multitasked ● Analyzed focus switching – Once every 70 seconds!! ● Activity not from multiple conversations – 77% never had overlapping conversations

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace Does IM create unwanted interruptions and affect productivity?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Effects of Interruption Helper –Saves jumpers –Sees image Seeker –Sees pieces of image –Asks 20 ?s More jumpers saved with less interruptions

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace How can we control IM interruptions?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Current Control Methods Toggle Device Status –May forget to turn off –May forget to turn back on Screen Incoming Messages –Negative social dynamic –Time spent assessing each message “Away” Status –Forget to set –Miss valuable messages Proactive Management –Forget to switch between accounts

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Traditional IM Client ● Sounds for incoming/outgoing message ● Indicator of away/available ● Hover produces idle time ● Focus indicator

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL AT&T’s Hubbub Individual Sound ID Location of user

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace Can we improve IM to make a seeker aware of a target’s presence?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Awarenex Logs location Tracks online calendar Observes activity Updates every minute Presents seeker with visualization of helper’s activity

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Awarenex Actogram Displays start, stop, and lunch trends Can display daily trends and reoccurring meetings Makes a seeker aware of the target’s trends in presence Can augment with Horvitz’s work on return prediction Target may be reachable, but not receptive… Figure published in “Work Rhythms: Analyzing Visualizations of Awareness Histories of Distributed Groups”

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Lilsys Presence data Availability detection –Sound –Phone –Door Vague status displays –Plausible deniability No feedback about willingness to receive a disruption…

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Notification Platform Seeker provided with video sequence of target’s activity Target can annotate video with busy times Compromising privacy!

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL BusyBody Status Training phase with “busy palette”

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL BusyBody COI Assess probability helper is in state S Train Bayesian Network Build case library Evaluate Expected Cost of Interruption Display cost to seeker Start to infer willingness to receive an interruption

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace Will a seeker pay attention to the information presented to them in an awareness display about the target’s presence and availability?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Motivation to Heed Awareness Display Awareness Display –None –Abstract –Full Motivation –Team –Individual

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Performance Improved! Helper saves more jumpers –Seeker more motivated –Seeker more aware –Helper given control

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM in the Workplace How can we enable the target to help their performance even when seeker disregards awareness displays?

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL QnA Relates to Winograd’s Action Workflow Question and Answers are adjacency pairs Questions often require a quick response When you send a question, you are often awaiting a response Help target filter messages by alerting them of questions and answers

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL QnA Question matched with strings –Use ExpectingResponse if target just sent a question –Use IncomingQuestion if target receives a question Response if adjacent to question –Use IncomingResponse if a message is received and ExpectingResponse is set Notify user Can extend this concept with Horvitz’s prioritizing work

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL The Ultimate IM Detect presence Monitor our social interaction Assess our cost of interruption Enable us as a target

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Summary IM in the workplace IM as a distraction Traditional disruption control methods New approaches to control messages Seeker’s motivation The Ultimate IM Tool

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Questions??

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL IM Statistics Heavy users –More short turns –More threading –Fewer conversation closings –More likely to allow interruptions Light users –Longer duration –Less threading –Quicker 1 st message response time Figure published in “The Character, Functions, and Styles of Instant Messaging in the Workplace”

THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL Controlling Interruption Helper saves more jumpers –Seeker more motivated –Seeker more aware –Helper given control Display results –No display = no awareness –Abstract Display = good awareness –Full Display = too busy