research-article

Interrupted by a phone call: exploring designs for lowering the impact of call notifications for smartphone users

Authors:

Matthias Böhmer,

Christian Lander,

Duncan P. Brumby,

Antonio KrügerAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 3045 - 3054

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557066

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Mobile phones have evolved significantly in recent years from single-purpose communication devices to multi-purpose computing devices. Despite this evolution, the interaction model for how incoming calls are handled has barely changed. Current-generation smartphones still use abrupt full-screen notifications to alert users to incoming calls, demanding a decision to either accept or decline the call. These full-screen notifications forcibly interrupt whatever activity the user was already engaged in. This might be undesirable when the user's primary task was more important than the incoming call. This paper explores the design space for how smartphones can alert users to incoming calls. We consider designs that allow users to postpone calls and also to multiplex by way of a smaller partial-screen notification. These design alternatives were evaluated in both a small-scale controlled lab study as well as a large-scale naturalistic in-the-wild study. Results show that a multiplex design solution works best because it allows people to continue working on their primary task while being made aware that there is a caller on the line. The contribution of this work is an enhanced interaction design for handling phone calls, and an understanding of how people use it for handling incoming calls.

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Cited By

Al Muhander BWiese JRana OPerera C(2023)Interactive Privacy Management: Toward Enhancing Privacy Awareness and Control in the Internet of ThingsACM Transactions on Internet of Things10.1145/36000964:3(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3600096
Inie NWesth BMuller JLungu M(2023)Challenges and Opportunities of Using Redirection of Activity for Self-Regulation OnlineProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581342(1-19)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581342
Bolton FTe’eni DToch E(2022)Can Previews Mitigate the Effect of Interruptions? Findings from a Lab Experiment under Various WorkloadsInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.213791540:4(956-964)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2137915
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Index Terms

Interrupted by a phone call: exploring designs for lowering the impact of call notifications for smartphone users
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2014

4206 pages

ISBN:9781450324731

DOI:10.1145/2556288

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University, Wales, UK
,
Philippe Palanque
Université Paul Sabatier, France
,
Program Chairs:
Albrecht Schmidt
University of Stuttgart, Germany
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 26 April 2014

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CHI '14: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2014

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CHI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 465 of 2,043 submissions, 23%;

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Cited By

Al Muhander BWiese JRana OPerera C(2023)Interactive Privacy Management: Toward Enhancing Privacy Awareness and Control in the Internet of ThingsACM Transactions on Internet of Things10.1145/36000964:3(1-34)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3600096
Inie NWesth BMuller JLungu M(2023)Challenges and Opportunities of Using Redirection of Activity for Self-Regulation OnlineProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581342(1-19)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581342
Bolton FTe’eni DToch E(2022)Can Previews Mitigate the Effect of Interruptions? Findings from a Lab Experiment under Various WorkloadsInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.213791540:4(956-964)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2137915
Kim MKim ILee U(2021)Beneficial NeglectProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/34480895:1(1-26)Online publication date: 30-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3448089
Visuri Avan Berkel NGoncalves JRawassizadeh RFerreira DKostakos V(2021)Understanding usage style transformation during long-term smartwatch usePersonal and Ubiquitous Computing10.1007/s00779-020-01511-2Online publication date: 19-Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01511-2
Cai LBarnes LBoukhechba M(2021)A Framework for Adaptive Mobile Ecological Momentary Assessments Using Reinforcement LearningIntelligent Systems and Applications10.1007/978-3-030-82193-7_3(31-50)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82193-7_3
Shaaban KTaylor S(2021)Measuring Cell Phone Use While Driving on CampusAdvances in Human Aspects of Transportation10.1007/978-3-030-80012-3_14(114-118)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80012-3_14
Toch EChassidim HHatuka T(2020)Can you Turn it Off?Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34151624:CSCW2(1-18)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3415162
van Berkel NExler AGjoreski MKolenik TOkoshi TPejovic VVisuri AVoit ATentori MWeibel NVan Laerhoven KAbowd GSalim F(2020)UbiTtention 2020Adjunct Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers10.1145/3410530.3414616(431-435)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2020
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Akpinar EYeşilada YTemizer S(2020)The Effect of Context on Small Screen and Wearable Device Users’ Performance - A Systematic ReviewACM Computing Surveys10.1145/338637053:3(1-44)Online publication date: 28-May-2020
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