DIME : desktop interruption management

Abstract

As most of us spend a substantial amount of time on computers nowadays for either work or personal tasks, it is very easy to realise that interruptions occur on a regular basis. Such interruptions often tend to cause an information and cognitive overload due to the inundation of data entering our desktop which disrupt us from our current task. A few years back, people used to be able to interrupt you only by phoning or walking into an office. Nowadays, through technological advancements, interruptions can occur via e-mails, instant messaging, mobiles and countless other mechanisms. In this paper we present DIME, a solution to interruption management to reduce disruptive interruptions by understanding the user's desktop context and current activities.