Hello everyone, my name is Yu-ling Chou
from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
And on behalf my co-authors
I’m presenting our paper about
integrating attention management
into the online status of
instant messaging services
So what is attention management tools?
Attention management tools
are the tools that
help you protect your attention
For example
if you find yourself often being distracted by notifications
newsfeeds, emails, messages
and so on and so forth
and you wanted to help yourself focus
like restricting your online activities
or using Do-not-disturb mode
to silence your phone
or block notifications
then you’re using attention management tools
However
while this kind of tools
can help people reduce distractions
and help them focus
research shows that
it also often lets people
feel stressed or anxious
about not receiving certain notifications
in time
such as those that are urgent
those from some important others
Particularly
research shows that
the always-on and always-connected world
nowadays have made many people feel
obligated to be
available
or to be responsive
because they think
they are being expected to do so
As a result
when using these kinds of
attention management tool
they also feel worried about
not being able to fulfill
their conversation partner’s response expectations
So one straightforward solution may be that
letting others know that
you are using restrictions
by disclosing it
on your online status
However
we don’t know
how people would perceive and react to
this kind of integration
and what kinds of
issues or concerns
that may arise
In this study
we aim to answer
how will people react to
disclosing their use of restriction
on online status
and what are their concerns of
disclosing the use of restrictions
To answer these questions
we applied a design research method
Specifically
we invited 43 participants
to compare and reflect on
a total of 48 mockups of
possible ways to
disclose restriction use
on online status
in various situations
These mockups were divided in
two major types
and three subcategories
in each type
The first type is blocking
which shows when
these restrictions take place
and the other type was
communication limit
And we created mockups
along several dimensions
such as
showing a specific period
versus countdown
showing a precise time
when the restriction will start or end
or a vague one
such as
“in a few minutes”
showing the restriction
being activated
versus deactivated
showing that
their notifications were blocked
their messages were concealed
or that
they were unable to respond
And for communication limits
we included the number of contacts
with whom they could exchange messages
the number of messages
and the number of characters
they could receive
For each limit
the status show the limit has been
reached
unreached
or the number remaining
The 48 mockups were displayed in
six blocks
on an online prototyping tool
called “Figma”
In the interview session
participants were brought to the Figma link
and freely browse
and navigate through these mockups
Initially
the researchers
guided them through these mockups
but also gave them freedom to
reflect on
any mockup of their choice
The researchers also told them that
the goal of providing them with these mockups
was not to generate
a complete list of
all possibilities
but to inspire them to
generate more reflections
on different combinations
Of course
they could freely propose other possibilities
and talk about how they thought about them
There were 43 participants
and 24 were males
and 19 were females
Their ages were between 20 and 49
16 were students
and the other 27 were non-students
with diverse occupations
In this study
our results highlight several
important tensions
around the disclosure of
restriction use
on online status
The first tension that emerged
as we expected
was between protecting one’s own attention
and fulfilling other people’s
response expectations
Along this spectrum
at one end was
the need that
put attention protection
as the highest priority
In other words
they just wanted to focus
and reduce disturbance regardless
and so they did not have
much concern about
disclosing their restriction use
on online status
Like this participant said
“I want him to see that
I am busy from 8 to 10
and I won’t see his messages”
The other end of the spectrum was
those who cared about
fulfilling other’s response expectations
more than protecting their own attention
One representative example was
“you can’t show people that
you’re not reading messages
or restricting notifications
It will harm your image
For many participants
on top of this tension
raised the second tension
how much privacy
people were willing to sacrifice
in order to justify
their restriction use
On one end was
those cared more about privacy
and didn’t want to disclose
any about their status
As one the other end
were those who felt important to
justify and explain
why they needed such a restriction period
To do so
many of them desired to
disclose activity details
so that other people would think
their use of restriction
was understandable and reasonable
Like this participant said
“I have to share information like
‘In a meeting’
‘Driving’ and ‘Sleeping’
or my wife may overthink”
Finally
we found that
on top of these two tensions
was how diplomatic people want to be
when they disclose
their use of restrictions
This describe a need for
being socially connected
They wanted to
disclose their restriction
in a polite way
so that people wouldn’t think that
they were unapproachable
and hard to reach
Base on our findings
we propose a number of
design implications
One of them is the design space for
the integration of attention management
into online status
We suggest designers
who are interested in such an integration
read our paper to determine
the level of restriction
and the level of disclosure
you want your system to support
depending on
how much attention protection
how much expectation fulfillment
how much autonomy
how much privacy
and how much connectedness
your users need
For more details
please look at our paper
Thank you for your attention
Feel free to contact us
if you have any questions