FlowLight

In today’s collaborative work environments, knowledge workers experience frequent interruptions from their co-workers, either in-person at the office or through online channels, such as email, chat and video calls. In our previous work, we’ve studied interruptions and their impact on productivity, and developed a research prototype, the FlowLight, which combines a physical traffic-light like LED with an automatic interruptibility measure based on computer interaction data. A large-scale and long-term field study showed, amongst other results, that it reduced 46% of interruptions at work, and workers’ awareness about the disruptiveness and cost of interruptions at work. The recent trends towards hybrid workplace scenarios induced further challenges on workers to find a balance between focused deep work and collaboration. Due to the continuously broad interest from individuals and companies, the proposed project aims to turn the research prototype into a product-ready version to increase productivity and well-being at knowledge companies in the greater Zurich area and elsewhere. To that purpose we are looking for implementation and study partners.