Project

Predicting Web Interruptibility

People use cues for determining appropriate moments for interruption. If somebody just finished talking on the telephone, that action might be a good indication to knock at their door. What cue detail level is necessary for people to make appropriate interruption decisions? We explored if humans are capable of inferring interruption times with an experiment that presented a series of screenshots from people navigating Websites. Subjects were asked to select three possible interruption times based on mouse activity. Mouse movement trajectories can indicate how information is interpreted while browsing a Webpage. Slow and arched trajectories as users move their mouse would indicate an ambiguous state of mind.