consideration in software mediated social interaction
DESCRIPTION
Raian Ali, Nan Jiang, Sherry Jeary, Keith Phalp. Consideration in Software-mediated Social Interaction. The IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS 2014). Marrakesh, Morocco. 28-30 May 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Consideration in Software-mediated Social Interaction
Raian Ali, Nan Jiang, Sherry Jeary, Keith Phalp
Outline
Problem Aim Method Results Challenges Conclusions
Problem
Being considerate is important in any business environment but sometimes it is down to personal choice.
People are trying to be considerate in “traditional” communications but not always in software mediated communications This often leads to negative impacts
Examples
Seeing more and more people being copied in an email conversation Being cc’ed without specifying why and
what exactly to look at
Being forwarded an email with FYI without specifying why and what exactly to look at Other short emails with only a few words or no
word
Research Aim
Understand how users perceive consideration in software-mediated interaction to improve social interaction facilitated by software Our ultimate goal is to develop
considerate software
Method
Mixed methods research Sequential exploratory designs (Stoller
et al, 2009)
Phase 1: qualitative research Exploration
Phase 2: quantitative research Validation and elaboration
Qualitative Phase
Semi-structured interviews
Participants: 8 professionals (6 males and 2 females)
with multicultural background living and working in the UK
Different roles from office worker to senior management
Age: 35 (Median), 37.5 (Mean)
Interview Questions
General Cognitive understanding, motivations for being
considerate/inconsiderate Popular software means used in workplace
Specific (software-mediated) Consideration/inconsideration User’s attitude and reactions Decision shift of being considerately or
inconsiderately treated Expectations of software on consideration-support
Quantitative Phase
Large scale online survey
Questionnaire based on interview findings
Distribution channels (UK and US): BU academic staff mailing list Chinwag mailing list Several research mailing lists
Respondents: 122 (67 males, 55 females)
Age Distribution (Survey)
0%20%40%
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74
Age Groups
Perc
enta
ge
Results Overview
Overall user perception mapped well Over 90% agreed, only 9 new codes proposed from less
than 10% respondents
Gender effects are not significant in all areas Cross tabulation, Chi-Square p> 0.05
Age effects are significant in some areas Cross tabulation, Chi-Square p> 0.05
Perception of consideration/inconsideration has impact on specifying consideration
Goal of Interaction
Goal of the interaction itself [65%]: “If they are not interacting for the right reason, then I am
less likely to be considerate”.
Constraints on achieving the goal [59%]: “In my reminders, I could be inconsiderate because of the
urgency and importance of attending the event, nothing personalised”.
Availability of other methods to achieve the same goal [56%]:
“Some people were in the habit of opening the shared file and then wandering off. They lock it. They could work-offline and then upload all text together”.
Consequence
Consequence on the organisation [63%] “Consideration needs managing otherwise destroys projects”
Colleagues’ reactions [59%] “I would deal with senior managers and close colleagues
differently”
Mental cost [55%] “If I did inconsiderate interactions, it makes me feel bad”
Social isolation [22%] “I want to be a nice person because I need to work with
them every day.”
Audience
Relation with the audience [76%]
Value of the audience [54%]
Personality of the audience [74%]
Interaction history with the audience [79%]
Situation awareness [63%]
Visibility of the interaction to other audience [56%]
Types of Inconsideration
Membership termination [59%] Locking [49%] Ignoring [70%] Flame wars [50%] Laziness/Carelessness [61%] Formality level [19%] Timeliness [60%] Pressure [49%] Invading personal space [50%] Irrelevance [36%] Violation of the norms [31%] Curt/ Abrupt wording [61%]
Treating Inconsideration
Behave in an ad-hoc way [25%] Conservative [37%] Receptive [48%] Anxious [35%] Practical [32%] Authority seeker [17%] Evasive [14%] Apologetic [36%]
Age Effects on Reaction
18 – 24 yrs old were more passive “I prefer others to handle this”
25 – 34 yrs old were more proactive “I will report it” “I will say it to the other”
35+ yrs old showed less interests, tend to ignore “Let it be”, “let’s just focus on the business”
Visibility
Explicitly said [40%]
Anonymously said [24%]
Said by an authority [28%]
Learned over time [59%]
Perception Impacts: Consequences
“I didn’t realise it could be inconsiderate for someone” People were more concerned about
their own mental cost (60% agreed)
“It could be inconsiderate” People were more concerned about
their recipients’ reactions (71.88% agreed)
Perception Impacts: Attitudes
TIL – “Today I learned” 59.68% would prefer that others learn
their view of consideration/inconsideration over time through the way they interact with them
“The big brother is watching you” 62.07% - 79.31% respondents would like
“third-party” to get involved as this will not affect their relationships
Perception Impacts: Reactions
“I am cautious to my own behaviour so I will be cautious to others behaviour” 73.5% respondents would be cautious what
they do Less than half of them would feel bad if
they did something inconsiderate
“Fair play” 58.82% don’t mind if they would be treated
in the same way as they treated others
Challenges
Users as modellers: only user can model themselves
Tacitness: easy to feel but difficult to elicit
Personal vs. public: private but can be leaked
Evolution of perception: change over time
Context-dependency: goal driven
Measurement: how it can be measured for each individual
Learning and adaptability: software needs to learn and adapt according to user actions/behaviours
Conclusions
Empirical study to deduce a number of observations on the nature of consideration
A starting point for understanding how to move towards building considerate software
Models and tools will be developed to capture user concerns in software mediated communications