Digital Epiphanies project presentation @ Balance Network retreat in Birmingham (Jan. 2014)

Woodbrooke, Birmingham

13-15th January 2014

Collection of personally relevant information about one’s behaviour as a result of which people gain insights into their own and other people’s habits that can potentially lead to beneficial attitude and behaviour changes.

(Cox, Fleck & Bird, 2013)

ACCEPTANCE EPIPHANY

CHANGE EPIPHANY

“

“

Woodbrooke, Birmingham13-15th January 2014

DIGITAL EPIPHANIES

Work Package 1Using Online Surveys to Explore

Reflexivity and WLB Issues Across a Broad

Demographic

Dr Rosie RobisonGlobal Sustainability Institute,

Anglia Ruskin University


Explore, via online surveys, links between: Reflexivity; self-directed behaviour change and WLB; digital practice issues across a broad national sample.

Test the feasibility of engaging with a broad sample of users in a future project.

What are people’s (self-reported) levels of reflexivity? Do these correlate with other WLB issues, such as work-home interference, job control, email stress?

How commonly do people undertake self-directed behaviour change relating to WLB? Prompted by what? (cf. “digital epiphanies”) Success rates.

Can we identify distinct groups who are more or less reflexive, or more or less successful (in their own eyes) at managing the effects of new technologies on their WLB?

How does reflexivity affect behaviour change? If it is useful to encourage reflection, how might this be done better using digital tools?


REFLIXIVITY

“ The extent to which we reflect upon and modify our functioning. ”

AIM

SK

EY Q

UESTIO

NS

1. Reflexivity, work-home interference/boundary control, wellbeing, technology use300 participants, via a web panel

Key findings: Self-Reflection and Rumination correlate with boundary control;

Boundary Control correlates with Autonomy and Environmental Mastery

New cluster group not identified previously – low boundary control and low work-home interference

Technology qs under analysis currently.

Outputs: paper in progress… (this is the item I have brought to the retreat)

2. Reflexivity, job control, email stress138 participants in three groups: academics, accountants, others.

Key findings: Rumination correlates negatively with Job Control

Insight and Rumination were found to have no significant correlation with Email Overload.

Higher Job Control was associated with lower Email Overload, and higher Satisfaction with Work.

Unlike in other studies, Email Volume did not correlate directly with Email Overload.

Outputs: Briefing note under review

3. Measuring reflexivity in different ways, active changes which impact on WLBunder construction


SU

RV

EYS

Interest in novel survey methods: Sentence completion

Prompts to encourage reflection

Work Package 2Work-family Configurations in a Digital

Age

Prof Natasha S. MauthnerDr Karolina Kazimierczak

Business School


Understanding if and how different digital technologies are implicated in creating boundaries between work and family

How is technology implicated in:

Changing the nature and meaning of work and family?

Generating new ways of doing work and family life?

Creating new norms and values around work and family?


KEY Q

UESTIO

NS

A theoretical and methodological framework was built, together with a set of methods to study the technology use in work and family practices within the home environment, using sensory,

visual, mobile and participatory ethnographic approaches.

AIM

S

Family members are invited as collaborators in the research by involving them in the selection of methods and production of artifacts.

Methods: a video tour of the home; an interactive floor plan activity; researcher- and respondent- generated photographs, films, scrap or

smash books, and diaries; individual and family interviews and conversations; and walk- and go-alongs using a GoPro as a way of participating in ‘A

day in the life of…’ each family.

Fieldwork visits: 1. video tour and map

2. go-alongs and discussing the materials they have generated;

3. final visit to discuss and agree on data use and management strategies.

Participants:5 households in North-East Scotland, with at least one child under the age of 18.


ON

-GO

ING

RESEA

RC

H

Work Package 3

Roles of Digital Technologies in Work-Life Balance Systems

Dr Chris PreistPaul Shabajee

Faculty of Engineering


Understand the current roles of digital technologies: their roles in the complex systems that bring

about beneficial/detrimental work-life balance noting issues with those terms

Identify potential 'points of intervention' where digital technologies may be able to make a 'positive' contribution A key focus is on concrete implications for future

(re-)design of digital goods and services


AIM

S

Inter-disciplinary literature review around 'work-life balance‘/life-balance and roles of ICT at multiple (all) levels:

from individual traits/psychology, family, workplace, communities, to global trade systems.

Higher Education focused study into what ‘work-life balance’ means, indicators and consequences, factors that a play a role and roles (current and potential) of digital technologies

semi-structured interviews with specialists, practitioners and interested parties with regard to WLB, (e.g. executive officers/managers, trainers, union officials, staff development/support staff, and technology service providers, project officers)

semi-structured interviews with academic/research staff

Developed e-mail (sent mail) analysis tool – as demonstrator of use of digital systems to extract and present WLB related behavioural information (for individuals and their networks)

Wrote a position paper (http://hci.bham.ac.uk/workshops/habit/): Shabajee, P., & Preist, C. (2013). Digitally Assisted Life-(Im) Balance? British HCI habits workshop.

Identifying and exploring the ‘unintended consequences’ of how technology impacts on work-life balance/life-balance

Outcomes: Analysis is providing sets of generic ‘life-balance’ insights and issues and examples of (complex) roles of digital technologies in WLB systems, identifying core problems and dilemmas, ideas for analytical tools, …


AC

TIV

ITIE

S

http://hci.bham.ac.uk/workshops/habit/

Work Package 4

How can personal informatics support reflection on digital practices?

Dr Anna CoxDr Emily Collins

Marta CecchinatoUCL Interaction Centre


1. SOCIAL NETWORK (Zhou, Bird, Cox, & Brumby, 2013) Can personal informatics help reduce perceived stress related to social networks?

Method: daily retrospective estimation of social network usage + objective measure of usage. Results: social network usage did not significantly change, BUT

participants’ perceptions were changed: - with a reduction in perceived stress and - an increase in satisfaction.

2. VIDEO GAMES (Collins, & Cox, 2013)How can digital games be used to improve recovery and reduce work-related stress?

Method: Survey (491 participants) Results: total number of hours spent playing digital games per week was

positively correlated with overall recovery.

3. TABLET USE (Stawarz, Cox, Bird, & Benedyk, 2013) Why, how and where do office workers use tablets and what impact might these devices on work-life balance?

Method: online questionnaire and qualitative study Results: useful for both home and work tasks, BUT potentially blur the

boundaries between work and personal life by encouraging and enabling people to complete work tasks during home time and vice versa.


RE

SE

AR

CH

4. EMAIL HABITS (Brumby, Cox, & Bird, 2013)What are the effects of a once-a-day checking strategy, as opposed to frequent checking strategy?

Results: Participants who adopted the once-a-day strategy made fewer visits

to email applications and, as expected, their sessions lasted significantly longer.

The overall time spent in one’s inbox when adopting a once-a-day strategy is (not significantly) lower than frequent checking strategy.

Effects of certain activities performed when commuting on work-life balance: would they help strengthen the boundaries or blur them, making it more difficult for people to relax?

Email prioritizing strategies by measuring response times

Can email behaviours be changed by adopting some personalized tools that can potentially help users mange their inbox more effectively?


RES

EA

RC

HFU

TU

RE W

OR

K

Digital Epiphanies Bloghttp://www.digitalepiphanies.org/blog.html


Image source: http://www.thejobcrowd.com/news/who-are-best-employers-work-life-balance

Lifestyle

Digital Epiphanies project presentation @ Balance Network retreat in Birmingham (Jan. 2014)