{"id":834136,"date":"2022-04-11T09:03:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T16:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=834136"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:50:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T20:50:09","slug":"understanding-multi-device-usage-patterns-physical-device-configurations-and-fragmented-workflows","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/understanding-multi-device-usage-patterns-physical-device-configurations-and-fragmented-workflows\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Multi-Device Usage Patterns: Physical Device Configurations and Fragmented Workflows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To better ground technical (systems) investigation and interaction design of cross-device experiences, we contribute an in-depth survey of existing multi-device practices, including fragmented workflows across devices and the way people physically organize and configure their workspaces to support such activity.<\/p>\n<p>Further, this survey documents a historically significant moment of transition to a new future of remote work, an existing trend dramatically accelerated by the abrupt switch to work-from-home (and having to contend with the demands of home-at-work) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 97 participants, and collected photographs of home setups and open-ended answers to 50 questions categorized in 5 themes.<\/p>\n<p>We characterize the wide range of multi-device physical configurations and identify five usage patterns, including: partitioning tasks, integrating multi-device usage, cloning tasks to other devices, expanding tasks and inputs to multiple devices, and migrating between devices.<\/p>\n<p>Our analysis also sheds light on the benefits and challenges people face when their workflow is fragmented across multiple devices. These insights have implications for the design of multi-device experiences that support people&#8217;s fragmented workflows.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-939063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Seven photos of at-home multi-device configurations dating from the coronavirus pandemic (2020).\" width=\"767\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-300x149.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-1024x507.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-768x380.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-1536x761.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-2048x1014.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Understanding-Multi-Device-Usage-Patterns-Fig-1-240x119.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To better ground technical (systems) investigation and interaction design of cross-device experiences, we contribute an in-depth survey of existing multi-device practices, including fragmented workflows across devices and the way people physically organize and configure their workspaces to support such activity. Further, this survey documents a historically significant moment of transition to a new future of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"","msr_conference_name":"CHI 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Yuan","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Nathalie Henry Riche","user_id":33058,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Nathalie Henry Riche"},{"type":"text","value":"Nicolai Marquardt","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Molly Jane Nicholas","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Teddy Seyed","user_id":38721,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Teddy Seyed"},{"type":"text","value":"Hugo Romat","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Bongshin Lee","user_id":31276,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Bongshin Lee"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Michel Pahud","user_id":33007,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Michel Pahud"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Jonathan Goldstein","user_id":32389,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Jonathan Goldstein"},{"type":"text","value":"Rojin Vishkaie","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"guest","value":"christian-holz","user_id":693735,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=christian-holz"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Ken Hinckley","user_id":32521,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Ken Hinckley"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199565],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[379814,957177,1105932],"msr_project":[717493,698833],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":717493,"post_title":"The New Future of Work","post_name":"the-new-future-of-work","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2021-01-25 07:40:51","post_modified":"2026-04-28 08:31:43","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/the-new-future-of-work\/","post_excerpt":"This cross-company initiative is dedicated to creating solutions for a future of work that is meaningful, productive, and equitable. The focus has shifted from remote to hybrid to the role of artificial intelligence in changing work practices.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/717493"}]}},{"ID":698833,"post_title":"SurfaceFleet","post_name":"surfacefleet","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2020-10-16 15:09:07","post_modified":"2023-04-21 22:31:42","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/surfacefleet\/","post_excerpt":"SurfaceFleet is a system and toolkit that uses resilient and performant distributed programming techniques to explore cross-device user experiences. With appropriate design, these technologies afford mobility of user activity unbounded by device, application, user, and time. The vision of the project is to enable a future where an ecosystem of technologies seamlessly transition user activity from one place to another, whether that \u201cplace\u201d takes the form of a literal location, a different device form-factor, the&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/698833"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/834136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/834136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939069,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/834136\/revisions\/939069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publisher?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=834136"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=834136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}