Detection of a Smartphone User's Distraction Based on Typing and Touch Gestures.

Distraction influences how we experience user interfaces and perform tasks as it increases our workload. It can be caused by internal or external factors. However, it is difficult to measure it in everyday life situations. Smartphones might solve this problem. To examine correlations between smartphone features and distraction, we conducted a user study with 20 participants. They had to (1) type text to describe a picture and (2) swipe and tap to select images from a gallery, either with or without distraction. Ground truth data (NASA-TLX, task completion time, eye pupil diameter) confirmed a successful distraction. Distraction went along with significant changes in touch and typing behavior. That is, participants tended to type slower (higher inter-key interval), made more typing errors (higher keystroke per character), and swiped slower (lower swiping speed). We conclude that a detection of distraction is possible, but only relative to a basic or previous user behavior that needs to be known.