Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
At first glance it seems absurd that busy people doing important jobs should want their computers to interrupt them. Interruptions are disruptive and people need to concentrate to make good decisions. However, successful job performance also frequently depends on people's abilities to (a) constantly monitor their dynamically changing information environments, (b) collaborate and communicate with other people in the system, and (c) supervise background autonomous services. These critical abilities can require people to simultaneously query a large set of information sources, continuously monitor for important events, and respond to and communicate with other human operators. Automated monitoring and alerting systems minimize the need to constantly monitor, but they induce alerts that may interrupt other activities. Such interrupting technologies are already widespread and include concurrent multitasking; mixed-initiative interaction; support for delegation and supervisory control of automation, including intelligent agents; and other distributed, background services and technologies that increase human-human communication. People do not perform sustained, simultaneous, multichannel sampling well; however, they have great capacity to manage concurrent activities when given specific kinds of interface support. Literature from many domains shows deleterious consequences of human performance in interrupt-laden situations when interfaces do not support this aspect of the task environment. This article identifies why human interruption is an important human-computer interaction problem, and why it will continue to grow in ubiquity and importance. We provide examples of this problem in real-world systems, and we review theoretical tools for understanding human interruption. Based on interdisciplinary scientific results, we suggest potential approaches to user-interface design to help people effectively manage interruptions. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2002 | 10.1207/S15327051HCI1701_1 | Human computer interaction |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
busy people,human interruption,human performance,human operator,human-computer interaction design,important event,important job,interface support,background service,background autonomous service,important human-computer interaction problem,human computer interaction | Interrupt,Intelligent agent,Supervisory control,Computer science,Automation,Human–computer interaction,Human multitasking,Job performance,Delegation | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
17 | 1 | 0737-0024 |
Citations | PageRank | References |
180 | 11.69 | 35 |
Authors | ||
2 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel C. McFarlane | 1 | 472 | 55.13 |
| Kara A. Latorella | 2 | 180 | 11.69 |