portable, and wireless Internet access gets us online all the time. Second, we have created an expectation for ourselves and for our groups of friends, families, and colleagues that we are accessible, at almost any time, no matter where we are. Early on, this was great: “if there’s an emergency, you can call me on my cell phone. Then it became, “if you’ve got a question, you can call me on my cell phone.” Then it was, “if you want to chat, you can call me on my cell phone.” Unfortunately, not even caller ID can distinguish among those calls for you, yet the kind of call may determine whether or not you have the time or desire to take it.

If this problem comes up as a combination of technological capability and social expectations, can we use technology and change social expectations to counter it?

I suspect we can, but much of the technology work still needs to happen, or move out of research labs and into the common tools we use. A small example of something helpful is the Growl notification service used by some applications on Mac OS. In a typical configuration, Growl provides a notice (say, an incoming IM) in a window that fades in unobtrusively in the corner of the screen, and then fades away. It may or may not capture your attention, but it’s also easy to take it in quickly and let it go, if that’s appropriate. It’s a step in the right direction.

A broader set of technological capabilities would encompass ways to filter the importance of certain items. Email programs often have some ways to do this,

although the filtering often gets in the way of processing all your emails when you are ready to do that. Some better tools for senders (of any communications, not just email) to indicate the urgency

would also help. But the critical factor with such technological capabilities is the social expectations of how they get used and responded to. It’s true that the tools encourage certain behaviors, but it is more important how you set your own boundaries and expectations. If you respond to business communication outside of work hours, then you create an expectation that you will do that. If you create some time for focused, uninterrupted work, you might have to get out of the office, but you can often make that choice.

A challenge for all of this is that teams can react more quickly and be more productive with smooth, rapid communication. So if the communications systems (phone, email, Twitter, IM, whatever) are used well, the team can move quickly. If a member of the team isn’t responsive, it can slow everyone down. A key part of the social expectations, then, should be what the group’s needs and practices are, with a balance of responsiveness and focused time.

Sometimes the communications challenges are all around us, but not quite visible. How do you avoid distractions when that’s what you need to do? Is your team responsive in communications? Take a step back and think about how you get your communications, interruptions, and focused work done. If you’re feeling insp~ired, try to do it without _{he interruptions.}

 

DOI: 10.1145/1435535.1435539

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Win Treese is co-author of Designing Systems For Internet Commerce. He can be reached at [e-mail].