Interaction Design, 6th Edition

Chapter 4COGNITIVE ASPECTS

• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 What Is Cognition?
• 4.3 Cognitive Frameworks

Objectives

The main goals of the chapter are to accomplish the following:

• Explain what cognition is and why it is important for interaction design.
• Discuss what attention is and its effects on our ability to multitask.
• Describe how memory can be enhanced through technology aids.
• Show the difference between various cognitive frameworks that have been applied to HCI.
• Explain what mental models are.
• Be able to elicit a mental model and understand what it means.

4.1 Introduction

Imagine that it is getting late in the evening and you are sitting in front of your laptop. You have a report to complete by tomorrow morning, but you are not getting very far with it. You begin to panic and start biting your nails. You see several notifications flash up on your smartphone. You instantly abandon your report and cradle your smartphone to read them. One is a message from your mother, and the other is a text from your friend asking if you want to go out for a drink. You reply immediately to both of them. Before you know it, you're back on Instagram to see whether any of your friends have posted anything interesting lately. Your phone rings, and you see that it's your dad calling. You answer it, and he asks if you have been watching the football game. You say that you are too busy working toward a deadline, and he tells you that your team has just scored. You chat with him for ...