Up to this point in my research, I have mostly been discussing interruptions in terms of attention, performance and also recovery. However, interruptions are never purely cognitive events. Every interruption also carries an emotional signal, whether intentional or not. In interaction design, this emotional layer often remains indirect, yet it strongly shapes how interruptions are perceived, tolerated or resisted.
Research in emotional design and affective HCI consistently shows that emotion is not something that happens after interaction, but something that actively shapes it.1 From this perspective, interruptions are not just breaks in task flow; they are moments where systems communicate priorities, urgency and value to the user. These moments can generate calm, trust, irritation, anxiety, or stress depending on how they are designed.
Donald Norman’s framework of emotional design is particularly useful here, as it separates interaction into visceral, behavioral, and reflective levels.4 Interruptions operate across all three. Viscerally, a sudden sound, vibration, or visual alert can trigger immediate affective reactions such as startle or irritation. Behaviorally, interruptions interfere with ongoing action and can either support or hinder smooth task continuation. Reflectively, users interpret interruptions as signals about importance, social obligation or system intent. Together, these layers explain why two notifications with the same content can feel completely different depending on timing, modality and context.
In HCI research, affect is increasingly understood as intertwined with cognition rather than opposed to it. Beale and Peter argue that emotional responses influence attention, decision-making and control, especially in interactive systems that demand frequent shifts of focus.1 From this view, emotionally charged interruptions can narrow attention and reduce cognitive flexibility, while calmer or well-aligned interruptions may support reorientation and recovery.
This relationship becomes especially relevant under conditions of high cognitive load. When users are already mentally engaged, interruptions do not just compete for attention; they amplify emotional responses such as stress or frustration.3 Emotional overload can therefore compound cognitive overload, increasing the perceived cost of interruption even when task disruption is minimal.
Recent work in emotional design and user experience also highlights that emotional responses to interaction accumulate over time. Dybvik shows that repeated exposure to small design decisions can shape long-term user experience, even when individual interactions seem insignificant.2 Applied to interruptions, this suggests that notification systems are not evaluated moment by moment but as part of an ongoing emotional relationship between user and system. Persistent feelings of pressure, obligation or loss of control can emerge even when no single interruption feels severe.
This perspective helps explain why users often describe notification-heavy systems as “stressful” or “exhausting” rather than merely distracting. The issue is not only frequency, but emotional tone and predictability. Lottridge et al. emphasizes that affective interaction design must account for how systems signal intent and respond to user state. Interruptions that ignore context or emotional readiness risk being perceived as intrusive or hostile, regardless of their functional relevance.3
From an interaction design standpoint, emotional design reframes interruptions as relational events rather than technical events. Designing for interruption therefore involves more than reducing frequency or optimizing timing. It requires attention to how interruptions feel, what they imply and how they position the user within the system. Calm transitions, respectful signaling, and clear recovery cues can all reduce emotional friction, even when interruptions are unavoidable.
Within the broader trajectory of this research, emotional design connects cognitive disruption with lived experience. Interruptions fragment not only tasks but also emotional continuity. Understanding this layer is essential for moving toward design strategies that support flow, recovery and long-term engagement without treating users as purely rational or purely efficient actors.
References (APA 7)
- Beale, R., & Peter, C. (2008). The role of affect and emotion in HCI. In Affect and emotion in human–computer interaction (pp. 1–11). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85099-1_1
- Dybvik, H. (2022). Experiences with emotional design. Master’s thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
- Lottridge, D., Chignell, M., Jovicic, A., & Riekhoff, J. (2011). Affective interaction: Understanding, evaluating, and designing for human emotion. Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 7(1), 197–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557234X11410309
- Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic Books.
- Mueller, J. (2004). Review essay: Emotional design by Donald A. Norman. ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 36(3), 12–16.
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AI tools were used at certain stages of the research process, primarily for source exploration, grammar refinement and structural editing. All conceptual development, analysis and final writing were made by the author.
