Diverse Strategies for Interruption Management in Complex Office Activities Suzanne O. Minassian, Michael J. Muller, and Daniel Gruen IBM Research One Rogers Street, Cambridge MA USA 02142 +1 617 693 7822 {sominass, michael_muller, daniel_gruen} @us.ibm.com ABSTRACT Interruptions are common in today’s workplace. Some researchers have viewed interrup- tions as unwanted disruptions, using restrictive techniques to reduce them. Others have seen value in relevant interruptions, promoting their helpful effects, while classifications of interruptions have noted both the positive and negative consequences of interruption types. This poster describes strategies and artifacts for managing interruptions across various applications and media, revealed during ethnographic interviews of office work- ers in a large software company. Results show complex patterns of problems and advan- tages of interruptions, and suggest a more complex account of interruptions in working life. Author Keywords Activity management, task management, interruption management, work analysis. ACM Classification Keywords H5.2. User Interfaces: Methodology; H5.3. Group & organization interfaces: Methodol- ogy. 1. INTRODUCTION I nterruption of on-going work has been a CSCW and HCI issue for at least a decade. In- terruptions have been described as extremely disruptive, as “constant, constant, multi- tasking craziness” [5], as events that can cost a knowledge worker as much as 15 minutes in recovery time [8], and as a problem in that interrupted work may never be completed [4] – i.e., interruptions are something to be avoided in UI design “wherever possible” [1]. Calibrate Interruption Availability Advertise availability or unavailability Anticipate Interruption with interruption-management artifacts Handle Interruption if necessary Seek interruption if appropriate Leverage Interruption if possible Recover from Interruption using interruption-management artifacts Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Calibrate Interruption Availability Advertise availability or unavailability Anticipate Interruption with interruption-management artifacts Handle Interruption if necessary Seek interruption if appropriate Leverage Interruption if possible Recover from Interruption using interruption-management artifacts Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Diverse strategies Figure 1. Interruption management and strategies