Alice Jane Bernheim Brush

Revisiting Whittaker & Sidner's "email overload" ten years later

Ten years ago, Whittaker and Sidner [8] published research on email overload, coining a term that would drive a research area that continues today. We examine a sample of 600 mailboxes collected at a high-tech company to compare how users organize their email now to 1996. While inboxes are roughly the same size as in 1996, our populations email archives have grown tenfold. We see little evidence of distinct strategies for handling email; most of our users fall into a middle ground. There remains a need for future innovations to help people manage growing archives of email and large inboxes.

Reading Revisited: Evaluating the Usability of Digital Display Surfaces for Active Reading Tasks

A number of studies have shown that paper holds several advantages over computers for reading tasks. However, these studies were carried out several years ago, and since that time computerized reading technology has advanced in many areas. We revisit the issue of reading in the workplace, comparing paper use to state-of-the-art hardware and software. In particular, we studied how knowledge workers perform reading tasks in four conditions: (1) using paper, (2) using a dual-monitor desktop system, (3) using a pen- enabled horizontal display surface, and (4) using multiple tablet computers. We discuss our findings, noting the strengths and shortcomings of each configuration. Based on these findings, we propose design guidelines for hybrid horizontal + vertical systems that support active reading tasks.

The home needs an operating system (and an app store)

We argue that heterogeneity is hindering technological innovation in the home---homes differ in terms of their devices and how those devices are connected and used. To abstract these differences, we propose to develop a home-wide operating system. A HomeOS can simplify application development and let users easily add functionality by installing new devices or applications. The development of such an OS is an inherently inter-disciplinary exercise. Not only must the abstractions meet the usual goals of being efficient and easy to program, but the underlying primitives must also match how users want to manage and secure their home. We describe the preliminary design of HomeOS and our experience with developing applications for it.

You're capped: understanding the effects of bandwidth caps on broadband use in the home

Bandwidth caps, a limit on the amount of data users can upload and download in a month, are common globally for both home and mobile Internet access. With caps, each bit of data consumed comes at a cost against a monthly quota or a running tab. Yet, relatively little work has considered the implications of this usage-based pricing model on the user experience. In this paper, we present results from a qualitative study of households living with bandwidth caps. Our findings suggest home users grapple with three uncertainties regarding their bandwidth usage: invisible balances, mysterious processes, and multiple users. We discuss how these uncertainties impact their usage and describe the potential for better tools to help monitor and manage data caps. We conclude that as a community we need to cater for users under Internet cost constraints.

A field study of knowledge workers’ use of interactive horizontal displays

To better understand the potential for horizontal surfaces in day-to-day work, we conducted a field study. We collected and analyzed over a month of use data from eight participants who used horizontal displays in conjunction with their existing office computer setups. Our analysis of the system logs, observations, and interview data from the study reveals clear differences in preference and use patterns for horizontal and vertical display configurations. Based on these findings, we formulate hardware and software design guidelines that would increase the utility of interactive horizontal displays for office scenarios.

Your phone or mine?: fusing body, touch and device sensing for multi-user device-display interaction

Determining who is interacting with a multi-user interactive touch display is challenging. We describe a technique for associating multi-touch interactions to individual users and their accelerometer-equipped mobile devices. Real-time device accelerometer data and depth camera-based body tracking are compared to associate each phone with a particular user, while body tracking and touch contacts positions are compared to associate a touch contact with a specific user. It is then possible to associate touch contacts with devices, allowing for more seamless device-display multi-user interactions. We detail the technique and present a user study to validate and demonstrate a content exchange application using this approach.

Life scheduling to support multiple social roles

We present the results of our study of 15 working parents, and how they manage their life scheduling needs, that is, how they manage their personal and professional schedules across settings and calendaring tools. In particular, we discuss how their dual roles of parent and employee compel them to record personal information on their professional calendars and we detail the tensions that arise in doing so. Finally, we present suggestions for future calendaring applications that better support working parents in managing their life scheduling needs.

DocuDesk: An interactive surface for creating and rehydrating many-to-many linkages among paper and digital documents

Knowledge workers often undertake tasks that involve a variety of information artifacts, including both paper and digital documents. In this paper, we first summarize findings from a study that illustrate some of the challenges of managing tasks that include both paper and digital content. We then introduce DocuDesk, a prototype interactive desk that demonstrates interaction techniques for establishing many-to-many linkages among paper and digital documents which can be used to quickly ldquorehydraterdquo task state.

Trajectory-aware mobile search

Most location-aware mobile applications only make use of the users current location, but there is an opportunity for them to infer the users future locations. We present Trajectory-Aware Search (TAS), a mobile local search application that predicts the users destination in real-time based on location data from the current trip and shows search results near the predicted location. TAS demonstrates the feasibility of destination prediction in an interactive mobile application. Our user study of TAS shows using predicted destinations to help select search results positively augments the local search experience.

Designing for families

In this Special Interest Group (SIG) we plan to focus on discussions and activities surrounding the design of technologies to support families. Many researchers and designers study domestic routines to inform technology design, create novel interactive systems, and evaluate these systems through real world use. Bringing together researchers, designers and practitioners interested in technologies for families at a SIG provides a forum for discussing shared interests including methods for gaining an understanding of the user, metrics for evaluating interventions, and shared definitions of the concept of the family.