Computer Science Professor Thomas Fritz's FlowLight Research Featured in New Yorker
The FlowLight research of Thomas Fritz, Assistant Professor at UBC, and David C. Shepherd from ABB Inc. was recently featured in the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and the New Scientist.
The FlowLight research focuses on a desk traffic light to reduce expensive interruptions at work. Based on keyboard and mouse interaction, the FlowLight system automatically measures a worker's availability and adjusts the desk traffic light's color as well as the Skype status of the worker. In a large-scale and longitudinal field study with 449 ABB employees across 12 different countries, the FlowLight reduced the interruptions of participants by 46%, increased their productivity and participants continued using it even months after the study.
The FlowLight research is a joint project between David Shepherd from ABB, Thomas Fritz (UBC) and his PhD students Manuela Züger (UZH) and André Meyer (UZH), as well as further researchers from ABB including Christopher Corley, Boyang Li, Vinay Augustine, Patrick Francis, Nicholas Kraft, and Will Snipes.