Interruptive notifications in support of task management

• Published in: International journal of human-computer studies 2015-07, Vol.79, p.20-34
• Main Authors: Paul, Celeste Lyn, Komlodi, Anita, Lutters, Wayne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Interruption; Multitasking; Notification; Task management; User experience
• ISSN: 1071-5819; 1095-9300
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2015.02.001

Our research explores how interruptive notifications support task management in a desktop environment. We conducted two user studies with a community of open source software users and developers to explore their experience with interruptive notifications. We found that certain kinds of notifications support multitasking, task prioritization, task management, as well as influence task disruption management. We discuss how these behaviors affect the notification-task management user experience and offer design guidelines derived from these results to inform better design of systems that interrupt through notification. •User Experience Reports are a method that collects detail of the interruptive notification experience in the user׳s natural environment.•Not all notifications are a negative; in fact, notifications are often a positive, useful experience when designed well.•Features such as integration at the desktop system-level and the ability to view a history of past notifications provide great value in task management•The KDE notification system and its users provide a rich use case of knowledge workers utilizing interruptive notifications in task management.