In this study we designed an assistive notification mechanism that did not interrupt users' primary task so that they could focus on their main activity in a desktop environment. When a notification appeared in the peripheral area of the users' field of view, we gave hints such as the color of cursor or a label to cursor to lead their attention to the notification that was originally outside of users' field of view. To test our mechanism, we performed a multi-task experiment in a desktop environment with a word-finding game and the mouse cursor hints. The result revealed that the color hint as well as label hint coming from the cursor could increase the accuracy of participants’ ability to aware of the notification and decrease their subjective frustration while having little effect on their primary task. This implies that these approaches can be a potential assistive mechanism to current notification systems in a desktop environment.

1. HFES 2014 Annual Meeting
Using Cursor Hints to
Supplement a Less
Interruptive Desktop
Notification
Ya-Hsin Hung
hung17@purdue.edu
Mina Ostovari
mostovar@purdue.edu
School of Industrial Engineering

2. 2

3. What is a Notification?
A mechanism that awares users about new information while
they are focusing on a primary task such as typing or
programing (Fabian et al., 2004).
↘ Without notification we might miss alerts from programs, chats,
emails…
3

4. Research about Notifications
Utilizing different modalities (Altosaar, Vertegaal, Sohn, & Cheng, 2006, Bhatia &
McCrickard, 2006, Warnock, McGee-Lennon, & Brewster, 2013).
Scheduling time of the notifications (Iqbal & Bailey, 2008, Chen, Epps, & Chen,
2013).
Using external devices (Mahler, Hermann, & Weber, 2009).
Giving subtle hints (Zhang, Tu, & Vronay, 2005).
4

5. Goal of the research
Introducing an assistive mechanism to the current notification
systems that causes less interruption but is still efficient for
desktop environment.
Giving a slight hint in the user’s focal area to lead user’s
attention to the notification.
5
ANddo rLmabael l
Notes
CCohlaonrg &e LCaobloerl

6. Hypotheses
H1 When we apply the assistive mechanism:
↘ H1A participants perform better in the primary task.
↘ H1B participants perform better in detecting a notification.
H2 Participants would feel less demanded after adding our
mechanism and decrease their cognitive loading in six aspects
of NASA-TLX.
6

7. 7

8. Primary Task
A Word-finding Game
8

9. Secondary Task
Detecting notifications
9

10. 4 Groups of Participants
10
Experiment Group 1
(Color)
Control Group
(Normal)
Notes Notes
Experiment Group 2
(Label)
Experiment Group 3
(Color & Label)

11. Measurements
Primary Task:
↘ Effectiveness (Ratio of correct chosen cards in percentage)
↘ Error rate (Ratio of wrong chosen cards in percentage)
Secondary Task:
↘ Accuracy (Ratio of correct selected icon sent the notification in
percentage)
NASA-TLX:
↘ Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Performance,
Effort, and Frustration
11

12. Procedure
1. Read the announcements and introduction explaining the goal
of the study.
2. Signed the consent form and filled a demographic survey.
3. 3 demos before doing the experiment.
4. 10 trials of word-finding games.
5. A post-survey based on NASA-TLX.
12

13. 13

14. Results
Accuracy of the Secondary Task (detecting notification)
14
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Accuracy (%)
Normal
Color
Label
Color & Label
Main effects:
(F(3,116)= 17.041, p <.001, partial η2= 0.306)
Change Color:
(F(1,116)= 12.917, p <.001, partial η2= 0.100)
Add Label:
(F(1,116)= 33.555, p <.001, partial η2= 0.224)
Color & Label:
(F(1,116)=4.650, p=0.033, partial η2=0.039)

15. Results
Effectiveness and Error rate of Primary Task (word-finding game )
15
3.5%
3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
Error Rate(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Effectiveness(%)
Normal
Color
Label
Color & Label
Main effects: (F(3,116)= 1.517, p=0.214, partial η2=0.038) (F(3,116)=1.613, p=0.190, partial η2=0.040)

16. Results
NASA-TLX
16
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Normal Color Label Color & Label
Mental Demand Physical
Demand
Temporal
Demand
Performance Effort Frustration
Subjective Measurement Scale
NASA-TLX
Change Color: (F(1,116)= 26.133, p=0.010, partial η2=0.056)

17. 17

18. Conclusions
 Changing the color as well as adding label of the cursor
increases the accuracy of notification awareness.
However, adding label of the cursor would increase the error
rate.
Changing the color of the cursor can decrease the frustration of
participants.
Our design is a potential assistive mechanism for notification
systems in the desktop environment.
Test more variables in the future.
18

19. Reference
19
 Altosaar, Mark, Vertegaal, Roel, Sohn, Changuk, & Cheng, Daniel. (2006). AuraOrb: using social
awareness cues in the design of progressive notification appliances. Paper presented at the
Proceedings of the 18th Australia conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Design: Activities,
Artefacts and Environments.
 Bhatia, Saurabh, & McCrickard, Scott. (2006). Listening to your inner voices: investigating means for
voice notifications. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems.
 Chen, Siyuan, Epps, Julien, & Chen, Fang. (2013). Automatic and continuous user task analysis via
eye activity. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2013 international conference on Intelligent
user interfaces.
 Fabian, Alain, Felton, David, Grant, Melissa, Montabert, Cyril, Pious, Kevin, Rashidi, Nima, . . .
McCrickard, D. Scott. (2004). Designing the claims reuse library: validating classification methods for
notification systems. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 42nd annual Southeast regional
conference.
 Iqbal, Shamsi T., & Bailey, Brian P. (2008). Effects of intelligent notification management on users
and their tasks. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems.
 Iqbal, Shamsi T., & Bailey, Brian P. (2010). Oasis: A framework for linking notification delivery to the
perceptual structure of goal-directed tasks. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 17,
15:11–15:28.
 Iqbal, Shamsi T., & Horvitz, Eric. (2010). Notifications and awareness: a field study of alert usage and
preferences. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-
Computer Interaction. Part III: Ubiquitous and Intelligent Interaction.
 Kim, Sung-Hee, Yun, Hyokun, & Yi, Ji Soo. (2012). How to filter out random clickers in a
crowdsourcing-based study? Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2012 BELIV Workshop:
Beyond Time and Errors - Novel Evaluation Methods for Visualization, Seattle, Washington.
 Landry, Brian M., Pierce, Jeffrey S., & Isbell, Jr., Charles L. (2004). Supporting routine decision-making
with a next-generation alarm clock. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8, 154–160.
 Mahler, Thorsten, Hermann, Marc, & Weber, Michael. (2009). Mobile Interfaces in Tangible
Mnemonics Interaction. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 13th International Conference
on Human-Computer Interaction. Part III: Ubiquitous and Intelligent Interaction.
 McCrickard, D. Scott, Chewar, C. M., Somervell, Jacob P., & Ndiwalana, Ali. (2003). A model for
notification systems evaluation-assessing user goals for multitasking activity. ACM Transactions on
Computer-Human Interaction, 10, 312–338.
 Shaw, Aaron D., Horton, John J., & Chen, Daniel L. (2011). Designing incentives for inexpert human
raters. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported
cooperative work, Hangzhou, China.
 Tam, Diane, MacLean, Karon E., McGrenere, Joanna, & Kuchenbecker, Katherine J. (2013). The
design and field observation of a haptic notification system for timing awareness during oral
presentations. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems.
 Vastenburg, Martijn H., Keyson, David V., & Ridder, Huib. (2008). Considerate home notification
systems: a field study of acceptability of notifications in the home. Personal and Ubiquitous
Computing, 12, 555–566.
 Warnock, David, McGee-Lennon, Marilyn, & Brewster, Stephen. (2011). The Role of Modality in
Notification Performance. In Pedro Campos, Nicholas Graham, Joaquim Jorge, Nuno Nunes, Philippe
Palanque & Marco Winckler (Eds.), Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2011 (pp. 572-588):
Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
 Zhang, Leizhong, Tu, Nan, & Vronay, Dave. (2005). Info-lotus: a peripheral visualization for email
notification. Paper presented at the CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing
Systems.

20. 20
Ya-Hsin Hung
hung17@purdue.edu
Mina Ostovari
mostovar@purdue.edu