Context: I'm creating a website aimed at middle-schoolers and high-schoolers to help them collaboratively create stories. The site is gamified so that each user will want other users to vote for the segments of stories (s)he writes.
There are two main reasons I want my users not to multitask.
- HCI researcher Clifford Nass has shown that people who multitask are more easily distracted, have worse memory, are worse at context switching, and are less happy. To maintain a high quality of content on my site, I would prefer that my users be focused, have good memory, be able to change direction depending on how the story is going, and have a positive disposition.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has considered the tremendous happiness and creativity that come from entering a flow state. A flow state comes from focusing exclusively on one topic, or in other words, from not multitasking. So that users will enjoy my site, I aim to bring them as close to a flow state as possible.
How can I encourage my users not to multitask? Or how can I discourage my users from multitasking?