In-situ investigation of notifications in multi-device environments

Abstract

Smart devices have arrived in our everyday lives. Being able to notify the user about events is a core feature of these devices. Related work investigated interruptions caused by notifications on single devices. In this paper, we investigate notifications in multi-device environments by analyzing the results of a week-long in-situ study with 16 participants. We used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and recorded the participants' interaction with smartphones, smartwatches, tablets and PCs. Disregarding the type or content of notifications, we found that the smartphone is the preferred device on which to be notified. Further, we found that the proximity to the device, whether it is currently being used and the user's current location can be used to predict if the user wants to receive notifications on a device. The findings can be used to design future multi-device aware smart notification systems.