Cognition
Neuroscience studies the biological aspects of how the brain functions an provides insights that can be incorporated into design through understanding: cognitive psychology + motivating principles + behavior influences.
Neuroscience examines the varied experiences of the brain and nervous system revealing insights into universal conditions regardless of culture and social experiences. Understanding the innate conditions allows designers to harness symmetry and alignment to convey order which universally reduces cognitive strain and improves usability.
Using a holistic approach for understanding human cognition reveals insights into perception, attention, memory, emotions, behavior, and problem-solving, which form the foundation for effective and intuitive designs.
Executive Function and Cognitive Load
Executive Function refers to information processing, emotion and behavior regulations, creativity, problem-solving, and personality expression. Executive Function is an emergent property of interactions between the brain, body, and physical and social environments. Cognition is part of Executive Function that relates to cognitive load through information processing, working memory, abstract thinking, and attention.
Executive Function influences everything related to design. UX Design tailors user interactions with data and information to be easy to comprehend, adjust, and make decisions. UX Designers use the foundational principles of neuroscience and psychology to understand how people process and interact with technology.
Relevance to UX Design
Executive Function
Retention — how long does the user have to focus and interact with the system?
Visual Recognition — how does the system provide recognition elements and reminders?
Mimicry — how does the system promote and adapt to user behavior?
Constraints — how does the system prioritize choices and notifications?
Cognitive Load
Learning Curve — what does the user need to learn to use the system?
Focus — how much undivided attention is required to use the system?
Tasks — if the user is interrupted, how does the system support reengaging the task?
Predictability — how does the system forecast what will happen next?
Memory — how does the system assist the user with recognition vs recall?
Cognitive Ease
Cognitive ease happens when there is no cognitive strain that interrupts the thought process or interferes with completing the task. When design works, it has high cognitive ease and scores high on usability testing. Poor design, causes interruptions and interferes with the user state of flow causing cognitive strain and frustration producing poor design integrity.
Aesthetic Design Integrity is not only about how nice-looking a design appears. It refers to a design that has intrinsic coherence providing balance, structure, and organization which improves comprehension and lower cognitive process requirements.
Good design is derived from psychology principles and knowledge, aligning design solutions through principles like proximity, similarity, and dissimilarity to produce order and meaning.
Poor design omits user behavior and expectations resulting in produces that poorly use alignment, hierarchy, contrast, consistency, etc. producing unbalance and incomprehensible decisions.
Design for Cognitive Ease
Embracing Neurodiversity Design, we can find additional insights into designing for cognitive ease by using UX principles to creating engaging, structured, and concise designs.
Aligning the Law of UX principles with feedback from Neurodiverse communities reveal a literal experience of “out of sight, out of mind” and the need for persistence systems that provide structure, hierarchy, and guidance for user interactions.
Attraction
Assist the user focus on the task at by utilizing the Von Restorff Effect to highlight key elements and using Tesler’s Law to simplify information displays and presentations.
Engagement
Assist user through a task flow by utilizing Jakob’s Law to implement familiar patterns and predictable user interfaces and using Millier’s Law for structuring and chunking information for easier comprehension.
Conversion
Assist users to determine the next course of action by utilizing the Doherty Threshold to ensure quick system responses and feedback and using Fitts’ Law to nudge users to the desired action.
Relevant: Knowledge Design
What does the user know, mental models, work arounds?
What does the system need to provide?
Incorporate best practices, templates, checklist, etc
Identify areas that are manually intensive, cognitively demanding, error prone
Convert research data into an optimized task flow with persistence and intelligent defaults
Relevant: Persuasion Influence
Reciprocation — People will be nice if you’re nice to them.
Consistency — It’s easier to get people to comply with requests that they see as consistent with what they’ve already said (especially in your presence.)
Social Proof — People will more likely say yes when they see other people doing it too
Like — You prefer to comply with requests from people you like more than from people you don’t like.
Authority — persuaded by authority figures
Scarcity — If you offer people something rare or scarce, they are more likely to want it
Relevant: Behavior Influence
COM = Behavior change
Capability (physical & psychological) — ability to participate in an activity
Opportunity (physical & social) — external factors that prompt a behavior or make it possible
Motivation (reflective & automatic) — conscious and unconscious cognitive processes that direct and inspire behavior