CO-Coffee: A Technology Probe Study to Facilitate Coffee Breaks in Open Offices

Coffee breaks serve as a good opportunity for workers to break up sedentary work and socialize with their colleagues. In this paper, we present a technology probe study using CO-Coffee, a sociotechnical system designed to encourage mutual invitation between coworkers for drinking coffee and visualize the process of each social break in an open office. The one-week probe study was conducted in three workplaces with 28 office workers to gain some qualitative insights into usage patterns and user experiences with CO-Coffee. Our results revealed how this probe facilitated coffee breaks in different working contexts and how participants established rituals around CO-Coffee to engage in break times. We emphasized the importance of positive workplace norms on break-taking behaviors and discussed design implications for reshaping workplace ambiance to encourage active and equal participations in break times.