Interrupter

Interrupter

The interrupter is always in tension between two design goals: It is supposed to annoy the human user—make him look away—but not too much. Similarly, the Interrupter is supposed to be "boring" (not dynamic), but at the same time, it can't be so static that a human won't notice when the interrupt is over.

Overview

The interrupt has two phases:

1. A notification, which is sent 30 seconds before the interrupt window appears.
2. The interrupt window, which blocks 30% of the screen area.

Interrupt Window

The interrupt window is an undecorated, always-on-top window in the screen center, and can only be hidden by a user interaction. It includes a timer running 20 seconds or longer, depending on the settings, and can only be hidden after that timer is finished.

Hiding the Interrupt Window

The interrupt window can only be hidden after the timer has run out, either by pressing the Done button (only visible after the timer has finished) or by pressing Esc.

• Hiding the window – once the timer has run out – should be as easy and seamless as possible. Pressing Esc, Space or Enter should all cause it to close, as should pressing a big close button.
• This can be achieved by requesting focus for the close button.