Evaluating the Disruptiveness of Mobile Interactions: A Mixed-Method Approach

While the proliferation of mobile devices has rendered mobile notifications ubiquitous, researchers are only slowly beginning to understand how these technologies affect everyday social interactions. In particular, the negative social influence of mobile interruptions remains unexplored from a methodological perspective. This paper contributes a mixed-method evaluation procedure for assessing the disruptive impact of mobile interruptions in conversation. The approach combines quantitative eye tracking, qualitative analysis, and a simulated conversation environment to enable fast assessment of disruptiveness. It is intended to be used as a part of an iterative interaction design process. We describe our approach in detail, present an example of its use to study a new call declining technique, and reflect upon the pros and cons of our approach.