Victor M. Gonzalez

Why do i keep interrupting myself?: environment, habit and self-interruption

Self-interruptions account for a significant portion of task switching in information-centric work contexts. However, most of the research to date has focused on understanding, analyzing and designing for external interruptions. The causes of self-interruptions are not well understood. In this paper we present an analysis of 889 hours of observed task switching behavior from 36 individuals across three high-technology information work organizations. Our analysis suggests that self-interruption is a function of organizational environment and individual differences, but also external interruptions experienced. We find that people in open office environments interrupt themselves at a higher rate. We also find that people are significantly more likely to interrupt themselves to return to solitary work associated with central working spheres, suggesting that self-interruption occurs largely as a function of prospective memory events. The research presented contributes substantially to our understanding of attention and multitasking in context.

Home-based communication system for older adults and their remote family

As in many Latin-American countries, in Mexico many older adults live alone as a result of the migration of one or more of their relatives, mostly to the USA. Thus, not only do they live alone, but they might seldom see these relatives for long periods, even though they often depend on them financially. With the goal of designing appropriate communication technology for seniors and their relatives experiencing this situation, we conducted interviews and evaluated scenarios and prototypes to reveal the practical ways they maintain emotional ties despite the distance. Based on those findings, we envisioned a communication system through which seniors and their relatives can maintain close social ties by sharing information, personal reminiscences and stories. We found that older adults perceived the system as a richer, natural form of communication with their relatives that could facilitate their integration into the networks that currently connect members of their families.

Social mediating technologies: social affordances and functionalities

A framework for analyzing computer-mediated communication is presented, based on Clarks theory of common ground. Four technologies are reviewed: Facebook, Wikipedia, Blacksburg Electronic Village, and World of Warcraft, to assess their “social affordances,” that is, how communication is supported and how the technologies provide facilities to promote social relationships, groups, and communities. The technology affordances are related to motivations for use and socio-psychological theories of group behaviour and social relationships. The review provides new insights into the nature of long-lasting conversations in social relationships, as well as how representations of individuals and social networks augment interaction.

Mobile games and design requirements to increase teenagers' physical activity

Participating in regular physical activity (PA) can help people maintain a healthy weight, and it reduces their risks of developing cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Unfortunately, PA declines during early adolescence, particularly in minority populations. This paper explores design requirements for mobile PA-based games to motivate Hispanic teenagers to exercise. We found that some personality traits are significantly correlated to preference for specific motivational phrases and that personality affects game preference. Our qualitative analysis shows that different body weights affect beliefs about PA and games. Design requirements identified from this study include multi-player capabilities, socializing, appropriate challenge level, and variety.

Ensembles: understanding the instantiation of activities

Purpose – An ensemble is an intermediate unit of work between action and activity in the hierarchical framework proposed by classical activity theory. Ensembles are the mid‐level of activity, offering more flexibility than objects, but more purposeful structure than actions. The paper aims to introduce the notion of ensembles to understand the way object‐related activities are instantiated in practice.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an analysis of the practices of professional information workers in two different companies using direct and systematic observation of human behavior. It also provides an analysis and discussion of the activity theory literature and how it has been applied in areas such as human‐computer interaction and computer‐supported collaborative work.Findings – The authors illustrate the relevance of the notion of ensembles for activity theory and suggest some benefits of this conceptualization for analyzing human work in areas such as human‐computer interaction and com...

Multitasking and interruptions: a SIG on bridging the gap between research on the micro and macro worlds

Within the CHI community there has been sustained interest in interruptions and multitasking behaviour. Research in the area falls into two broad categories: the micro world of perception and cognition; and the macro world of organisations, systems and long-term planning. Although both kinds of research have generated insights into behaviour, the data generated by the two kinds of research have been effectively incommensurable. Designing safer and more efficient interactions in interrupted and multitasking environments requires that researchers in the area attempt to bridge the gap between these worlds. This SIG aims to stimulate discussion of the tools and methods we need as a community in order to further our understanding of interruptions and multitasking.

Ecological Validity and Pervasiveness in the Evaluation of Ubiquitous Computing Technologies for Health Care

The difficulties associated with the evaluation of ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp) technologies increase in application domains such as hospitals, where human life can be at risk, privacy of personal records is paramount, and labor is costly and highly distributed across space and time. For the last 6 years numerous Ubicomp technologies in support of hospital work have been created and pilot-tested. In this article, the lessons learned from these evaluations are discussed, using two criteria to classify them. The first criterion is ecological validity, namely, the extent to which the evaluation is conducted under realistic conditions. Alternatives range from controlled experiments to in situ evaluations. The article argues in particular for the advantages of intermediate approaches, which is referred to as in silico and in replica. The second criterion relates to the degree of integration of the technology with the environment, which is referred to as its pervasiveness. The evaluation grid that comes out of this exercise highlights the importance of ecological validity in evaluating ambient computing technology that supports the activities conducted in complex health care settings such as hospitals. This provides a framework for evaluating Ubihealth, which can be used to select appropriate techniques as a function of the technological and environmental complexity as well as to devise novel evaluation techniques.

An empirical study of work fragmentation in software evolution tasks

Information workers and software developers are exposed to work fragmentation, an interleaving of activities and interruptions during their normal work day. Small-scale observational studies have shown that this can be detrimental to their work. In this paper, we perform a large-scale study of this phenomenon for the particular case of software developers performing software evolution tasks. Our study is based on several thousands interaction traces collected by Mylyn, for dozens of developers. We observe that work fragmentation is correlated to lower observed productivity at both the macro level (for entire sessions), and at the micro level (around markers of work fragmentation); further, longer activity switches seem to strengthen the effect. These observations are basis for subsequent studies investigating the phenomenon of work fragmentation.

Supporting the management of multiple activities in mobile collaborative working environments

Many modern working environments are characterized by the need to manage multiple activities simultaneously. This is the case for instance of hospital work, which also demands a high degree of mobility and collaboration among specialists. These working conditions have motivated us to design and implement mobileSJ, a mobile information management tool based on the concept of working spheres. The tool allows users to gather information related to a working sphere, including documents, contacts and pending tasks. The tool assists users when switching between tasks, facilitates the sharing of activity related information with colleagues, as well as the synchronization of information among multiple devices, including handheld computers and public displays.

Collaborative Working Spheres as support for starting collaboration in distributed software development

One important tendency in software development has been the globalization of its industry. Software developers are frequently required to work in groups which are distributed throughout multiple geographic locations. People and processes (e.g. software design) are consequently distributed. Providing the support that will allow distributed software developers to collaborate at a convenient moment, is therefore extremely complicated both for the person making contact and the person being contacted. We therefore propose a characterization and a model of Collaborative Working Spheres (CWS) through which to understand the management of activities in distributed software development (DSD). Our work first aims to characterize DSD activities mainly through a survey of literature. We then describe a projected scenario to illustrate how DSD activities can be supported by technology and finally we propose a characterization of CWS through which to represent how DSD workers can collaborate at a moment which is suitable for all involved participants.