XClose

UCLIC - UCL Interaction Centre

Menu

Digital Boundaries

;ogo

18 September 2023

Technology is becoming increasingly embedded in our everyday life through our suite of multiple devices, and as a result the way we work is changing. The consequential constant connectivity means that people often feel that they are expected to respond to emails at any time, or anywhere, and this can lead to work interfering with home life. While interference between work and personal domains has some positive connotations, such as allowing people to remain connected, it is also positively correlated with stress, particularly when work permeates non-work. Therefore being able to negotiate one's availability and thus have more control over boundary management can help reduce interferences and consequently stress. However, we still know very little about the practical implications of communication technologies and their role in boundary management and negotiation.

By bringing together theory from organisational psychology and HCI literature on computer-mediated communication and cross-device experience, this project investigates how communication technology across accounts and devices can support or challenge people's preferred boundary management strategies. Ultimately, our findings can help inform design recommendations to take into account and support users' boundary preferences.

Selected publications

  • Cecchinato, M.E., Cox, A. L., & Bird, J. (2017). Always On(line)? User Experience of Smartwatches and their Role within Multi-Device Ecologies. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing systems. Denver, CO. 
  • Cox, A.L., Gould, S., Cecchinato, M.E., Iacovides, I., Renfree, I. (2016). Design Frictions for Mindful Interactions: The Case for Microboundaries. Proceedings CHI '16 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. San Jose, CA. 
  • Cecchinato, M.E., Cox, A.L., Bird, J. (2016, May). Work-Life Balance through Tangibles and the Internet of Things. Tangibles4Health Workshop, ACM CHI, San Jose, CA. 
  • Cecchinato, M.E., Cox, A.L., & Bird, J. (2015). Working 9-5? Professional Differences in Email and Boundary Management Practices. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing systems. Seoul, South Korea.
  • Cecchinato, M.E., Cox, A.L., & Bird, J. (2015). Smartwatches: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Proceedings CHI '15 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Seoul, South Korea. 
  • Cecchinato, M.E., Fleck, R., Bird, J., & Cox, A.L. (2015, April). Online vs. Offline: Implications for Work Identity. Between the Lines: Reevaluating the Online/Offline Binary Workshop, ACM CHI, Seoul, South Korea. 
  • Cecchinato, M.E., Cox, A.L., & Bird, J. (2014, September). "I check my emails on the toilet": Email Practices and Work-Home Boundary Management. Socio-Technical Systems and Work-Home Boundaries Workshop, ACM MobileHCI, Toronto, Canada. 
  • Cecchinato, M.E. (2014, September). Email management and work-home boundaries. In Proceedings of the 16th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices & services (pp. 403-404). ACM.