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PC Users Fight Distractions to Work
prostoalex writes "When someone buys a computer, they expect noticeable increases in productivity and ability to perform routine tasks more efficiently. At least that's what the commercials say. The New York Times talks about the dire reality: software applications do an excellent job of distracting us from doing the tasks. An e-mail notification here, an application popup there, a sound effect telling you the download has been completed and a popup window asking whether you would like to download the latest updates. Much of this distraction is self-enforced, such as taking a break from work to check the weather forecast, read the news headlines, or yet again check the e-mail inbox. NYT talks about various ways people are fighting distractions and points to some cognitive technology research done at Microsoft."
I've noticed the same thing, but I turned the distractions off, the little sounds, the popups, the notifications.
;)
Some people can focus in a crowded busy lecture hall, some people can't even focus alone in their rooms.
People are as focussed as they want to be it seems, take this with a grain of salt, given that it's the middle of the work day, and i'm posting on slashdot.....
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Really? I don't think so...
I'd say the biggest distraction is access to the Web.
For example, posting on Slashdot.
Yes, let's eliminate all distractions so that 5 seconds of happiness that you receive from an email popup regarding a personal email doesn't become a problem. Eliminate checks on weather sites to see how the weather will be when traveling home and planning accordingly. Eliminate everything that could possibly take away from becoming a machine that probably takes no more than 20 minutes in an entire day.
We are not machines, we are people. Doing repetitive tasks all day is the work of machines and can cause injury in humans. Should we not have that brief hallway chat with our friends and colleagues to satisfy the need of humans? Or should our interactions also become that of machines: necessary and nothing more.
The distractions listed here seem rather silly and mostly harmless to most people. If a particular person is distracted too much, then fix the problem for them. For example, if someone has a window office and can't stop staring outside all day, stick them in a cubicle or something. For the most part, however, these sort of distractions are what humans often require - a quick brak.
What about Slashdot?
That thing sucks so many hours from my daily job that I do not even want to count them.
One time I was running some 20 min simulations and I realized that 20 min were equivalent to a "brief" review of Slashdor.
I wish I could turn it off
What a lack of self control damn
I remember the good ol' days when we would goof off by walking over and talking to coworkers.
Table-ized A.I.
No I don't really think so, in fact I belive it just proves the point of the article more. Dictionary.com defines irony as such irony Audio pronunciation of "irony" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-n, r-) n. pl. ironies 1. 1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. 2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. 3. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See Synonyms at wit1. 2. 1. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: "Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated" (Richard Kain). 2. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity. See Usage Note at ironic.
1. Window tip of the day appears. (You can choose not to be bothered again).
2. These icons aren't being used. Would you like to clean up the tray icons?
3. Wireless service is available. Several dialog boxes pop up and then one big window pops out to help you select which network you want.
4. There are new updates for your computer.
5. If you have an OEM installed machine it comes with DirectCD or Sony Updates....
6. Inserting a USB thumbdrive requires three different dialog boxes.
On a Mac OSX system. You application icon can leaps up and down in the dock if it needs attention (reasonable). I switch of animate opening applications. It does annoy you about joining some wireless network if you are in some coffee shop (although it does require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
On other Unix (Irix, HP-UX, Solaris) systems nothing bothers you. Then again, I would argue that the pop up windows from the OS and wizards are trying to be helpful. Personally I find it annoying because I know how to use my computers. Well, I get paid to administer computers, so I better know. I find Mac OSX the most useable, yet helpful and gets out of my way to let me do my work.
nobody goofs off in a text-only environment
yup
Changa hates change.
I can see two relevant differences immediately
Pauses are much less frequent than interruptions. A pause each hour or so is often considered appropriate.
Interruptions each few minutes are hell.
It's impossible to get anything done.
physical versus intellectual work: intellectual work suffers from constant interruption.
Physical work also suffers from interruptions(losing rhythm), but probably less.
Admittedly, whenever i think of "history repeats itself" I have this itch.
Allergy of historicism causes that I think.
Yup. Microsoft is one of the worst offenders here. E.g. try moving a large folder containing a few read only files, system files etc. in Windows Explorer. Plenty of other examples though.
A general rule of interface design, if the user is busy typing something, you just don't rudely grab the focus from them. This is a general problem with Windows.
Occasionally they've tried to improve it and do like Outlook where the taskbar app button flashes blue like crazy. However this is practically as bad, because it's too distracting to be able to do anything while that button flashes, and the worst is that even though the app is DEMANDING your attention, most of the time it was for something totally stupid and pointless. Don't demand the user's attention unless it's for something important. In XP they also try to use those comic-bubble-style popups from the taskbar, which then cover part of your Window and don't go away, and they come up far too much in a default XP install, to harass you into registering for Passport and whatnot.
The Firefox designers 'got it right' with their popup blocker window thing that appears on the top.