This paper explores redirection of activity as an intervention strategy for self-regulation online. We conducted an explorative study ( = 19) of the browser extension Aiki, which redirects a user from a self-defned 'time-wasting' website to an online platform for learning programming (Sololearn, Codecademy, or Udemy). Based on quantitative measures alone, using Aiki decreased the participants' time spent on time-wasting websites on average, and increased programming knowledge. However, several users ended up avoiding their time-wasting websites entirely when Aiki was active, or they discontinued the use of the extension after 'the novelty wore of'. Based on these efects, we qualitatively explored the user experiences and identifed four challenges and four opportunities for using redirection of activity as an intervention strategy for self-regulation of time management in a browser. Our results suggest that this intervention strategy is promising, but careful design is necessary to strike an optimal balance between independence and regulation. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → User interface design; Interactive systems and tools.

This paper presents and evaluates a new survey metric, the active Reading Support indeX (aRSX), which was created to help researchers and designers evaluate whether a specific software or hardware tool supports active reading of academic texts. The aRSX is comprised of questions in five categories: The Text, Cognitive Workload, Physical Workload, Perceived Learning, User Experience and Aesthetics, and Flow, as well as an open-ended question for additional comments. In this paper, we present our initial development of two beta-versions of the questionnaire in two studies of n = 100 and n = 53 deployments, evaluating paper, laptops, iPads, and reMarkable tablets as reading support tools. These studies led to the current version of the aRSX, and the initial results suggest that the metric is a reliable and valid indicator of a tool's ability to support reading of academic texts.