Mindful Design: How and Why to Make Design Decisions for the Good of Those Using Your Product

© Scott Riley 2019

Scott RileyMindful Designhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4234-6_1

1. Attention and Distraction

Scott Riley¹ 

(1)

Nottingham, UK

 

Attention is a precious mental resource. Every day we are bombarded with decisions and trivial things we need to remember. What should I wear today? Should I even get dressed? Can I just hide under the duvet until June? Where did I leave the keys? Is there enough milk left for cereal? Even though we can seemingly instantly and instinctively answer most of these questions, there is a very real cost attached to each and every one of them.

Behind the scenes, our brain—through a process of selective attention—is constantly assessing our environment and deciding what occurrences or stimuli are important enough ...