Narrative:

Missed direction on company page to contact ground for pushback. Due to similar ramp appearance to many other company-owned; uncontrolled; small; remote ramps; pushed back onto the adjacent taxiway without asking ground. When taxi clearance was requested; ground control mentioned that what we thought was an uncontrolled part of the ramp; was actually a taxiway. They said there was no conflict; but to note it in the future. Apologized and continued.I believe that several factors added to the cause: similarity to many other small ramps; my unfamiliarity with this particular airport; and; truthfully; the disruption in my normal flows and habit patterns due to the change in operations during the coronavirus pandemic. I normally don't use my ipad for things like checking in or reading and signing the flight planning requirements. I previously exclusively relied on printed paper flight planning requirements because of the ease; accuracy; and speed of access and unmatched ability to understand the entire plan when referencing them. I also have found it faster to exclusively use the touchpad in the airplane for all in-flight info; and consider taking out and attaching the ipad to be superfluous; time-consuming; and limits visibility. During covid operations; I have been trying to find the best way to alter my flows and vary from proven habit patterns to comply with changing sanitation requirements and necessary technological operational changes. I believe the combination of dealing with cleaning the flight deck; reduced communication while wearing a mask and distracting tactile limitations of gloves; changes in where and how quickly pertinent information is obtained (ipad vs paper; ipad vs. Touchpad); and changes as simple as where your eyes look to get info; lead to this mistake. Simply put; I looked at the ramp depiction on the company page on the ipad; had it sized incorrectly to see the parking space only as opposed to looking at the depiction on the airplane's touchpad where I would normally look and see the requirement to call ground for pushback; and missed it based on experience-based expectation bias. I think the first officer did pretty much the exact same thing; causing him to miss it too.as always; slow down; communicate; and don't fall to the limitations of previous experience before confirming an action from more than one source.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported pushing without contacting ground; citing COVID-19 operations as the reason for disrupting flows and habits.

Narrative: Missed direction on company page to contact Ground for pushback. Due to similar ramp appearance to many other company-owned; uncontrolled; small; remote ramps; pushed back onto the adjacent taxiway without asking Ground. When taxi clearance was requested; Ground Control mentioned that what we thought was an uncontrolled part of the ramp; was actually a taxiway. They said there was no conflict; but to note it in the future. Apologized and continued.I believe that several factors added to the cause: Similarity to many other small ramps; my unfamiliarity with this particular airport; and; truthfully; the disruption in my normal flows and habit patterns due to the change in operations during the Coronavirus pandemic. I normally don't use my iPad for things like checking in or reading and signing the flight planning requirements. I previously exclusively relied on printed paper flight planning requirements because of the ease; accuracy; and speed of access and unmatched ability to understand the entire plan when referencing them. I also have found it faster to exclusively use the touchpad in the airplane for all in-flight info; and consider taking out and attaching the iPad to be superfluous; time-consuming; and limits visibility. During COVID Operations; I have been trying to find the best way to alter my flows and vary from proven habit patterns to comply with changing sanitation requirements and necessary technological operational changes. I believe the combination of dealing with cleaning the flight deck; reduced communication while wearing a mask and distracting tactile limitations of gloves; changes in where and how quickly pertinent information is obtained (iPad vs paper; iPad vs. Touchpad); and changes as simple as where your eyes look to get info; lead to this mistake. Simply put; I looked at the ramp depiction on the company page on the iPad; had it sized incorrectly to see the parking space only as opposed to looking at the depiction on the airplane's touchpad where I would normally look and see the requirement to call Ground for pushback; and missed it based on experience-based expectation bias. I think the FO did pretty much the exact same thing; causing him to miss it too.As always; slow down; communicate; and don't fall to the limitations of previous experience before confirming an action from more than one source.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.