Review: The most annoying application of all times

Wednesday, November 4. 2009

Review: The most annoying application of all times

It’s about time to do some more productive blog posts and review some apps I use.

For the start I want to review no less than the most annoying application of all times™. What is it, you wonder? No, it’s nothing from MS at all. It’s Workrave what I’m talking about.

Surprised? No longer if you read on. First, here’s what it is for:

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.

That sounded quite promising to me, and this free app runs on Win and Linux. I started to give it a try in 2007 when I spent a lot of time writing at my Master’s thesis. I sometimes got burning eyes and a slight headache when ignoring to take a break from the screen once in a while. The app reminded me of important breaks and allowed me to work longer and more efficient.

The micro-breaks give you the chance to rest for a few seconds to relax your eyes. Then the regular breaks allow you to e.g. get something to drink or to go somewhere else. I usually have 8–10 minutes between micro-breaks that last for 20–30 seconds. The regular breaks come every 50 minutes and last for 10 minutes. All these times are configurable.

But the problem then comes with finding a compromise between break enforcement and break denial, and even more with the fact that the software isn’t smart enough to notice you being highly concentrated or busily typing at that time.

You can gain different enforcement levels by making use of these options:

break prompt (or pre-alert),
postpone and skip buttons, and
input blocking.

The break prompt is a blinking window, reminding you of a break being due; see the screenshots for details. The postpone and skip buttons are welcome when you’re currently too into anything to take a break. And the input blocking is a good way to instantly intercept your current workflow in the middle of a sentence or a click.

I just can’t tell you what’s more annoying. The real problem is that the software doesn’t notice when you’re in the middle of a workflow that shouldn’t be interrupted. On the other hand, it’s just built to make you relax for a while. But it doesn’t define due breaks in a fuzzy way. Murphy’s law is always present as well: It is totally reproducible that the break prompt pops up just when a fellow work mate comes to my screen to be shown something. No joke! And I often postpone rest breaks subsequently for almost an hour, and I tend to ignore micro-breaks even more.

Of course you could switch off the break prompt. But then the all-blocking break window jumps right into your face. And of course you could disable input blocking. But then you’d miss the actual break. Of course you could just postpone or skip the break. But it has already interrupted you in the middle of your thought.

The solution would probably be to feed mouse movements and keystrokes into an intelligent algorithm that measures whether you’re currently “creative” or e.g. just reading. Then, at appropriate opportunity, it could start reminding you gently to take a break and then get more and more fierce subsequently. Also, there should be a more fuzzy way to block input. Even during this article I got. Exactly, got interrupted several times. (Just let me write that damn sentence!)

I’m not a GUI-programmer, but maybe I should find out whether I can contribute something. The problem might also be to find a visualization technique that works on both platforms. Anyway, I’ll continue to use that software, as probably I’d have more headaches and eye problems if I wouldn’t use it at all.

Conclusion: Use it if you value your eyesight and look at the computer screen all day long. It’s worth the annoyance, and you’ll work more efficient.

Posted by Stephan Paukner in Information Technology at 21:53 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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