Analysis of multitasking in the context of using multiple mobile devices: a qualitative research

As a mobile device including smartphones has become one of necessities in everyday life, people are enabled to work on any tasks they want at any time. Moreover, due to mobility and advanced computing system in mobile devices, the users have been habituated to multi-tasking on the devices. We conducted a qualitative study in order to explore multitasking behaviors within the context of using multiple mobile devices. With 19 mobile device users, individual in-depth interviews were carried out. The data from the interviews were analyzed based on grounded theory. In conclusion, various factors such as the number and characteristics of devices, relationships between the tasks have influences on multi-tasking behaviors. Implications and limitations of this study were presented.

[1]  Liam Bannon,et al.  Evaluation and analysis of users' activity organization , 1983, CHI '83.

[2]  Paul Johns,et al.  Working Overtime: Patterns of Smartphone and PC Usage in the Day of an Information Worker , 2009, Pervasive.

[3]  Stacey F. Nagata,et al.  Multitasking and Interruptions during Mobile Web Tasks , 2003 .

[4]  Glenn Lyons,et al.  Introducing multitasking to the study of travel and ICT: Examining its extent and assessing its potential importance , 2007 .

[5]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Cognitive control in media multitaskers , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[6]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Understanding mobile contexts , 2003, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[7]  Thomas G. Dietterich,et al.  TaskTracer: a desktop environment to support multi-tasking knowledge workers , 2005, IUI.

[8]  Eric Horvitz,et al.  Disruption and recovery of computing tasks: field study, analysis, and directions , 2007, CHI.

[9]  Blair MacIntyre,et al.  Support for multitasking and background awareness using interactive peripheral displays , 2001, UIST '01.

[10]  Nicola Green,et al.  On the Move: Technology, Mobility, and the Mediation of Social Time and Space , 2002, Inf. Soc..

[11]  Katarzyna Wac,et al.  Getting closer: an empirical investigation of the proximity of user to their smart phones , 2011, UbiComp '11.

[12]  Gloria Mark,et al.  The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress , 2008, CHI.

[13]  U. Foehr.  MEDIA MULTITASKING AMONG AMERICAN YOUTH: PREVALENCE, PREDICTORS AND PAIRINGS , 2006 .

[14]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[15]  R. Gephart.  Qualitative Research and the Academy of Management Journal , 2004 .

[16]  Víctor M. González,et al.  No task left behind?: examining the nature of fragmented work , 2005, CHI.

[17]  Jennifer Mankoff,et al.  When participants do the capturing: the role of media in diary studies , 2005, CHI.

[18]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[19]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[20]  E. Jones,et al.  A grounded theory approach to modelling learnability of hypermedia authoring tools , 2002, Interact. Comput..