Notable points from the article:
- Designing technology requires understanding of human cognition for a good user experience.
- The Dual System Model of Cognition, constituting the working memory and the filter, plays a crucial role in technology-user interactions.
- Automation doesn’t eliminate the human aspect but changes what the human does.
- Future discussions will cover areas like human pattern recognition, perceptual and cognitive salience, stress and task demand interaction, and more.
Rebecca Grier, in her article ‘Designing Technology with the Human Mind in Mind,’ brings into focus the critical role of behavioural science in creating technology with a great user experience. She points out that complete automation, contrary to early predictions, does not take the humans out of the loop but changes their role – a factor that technology developers must consider.
A featured model in Grier’s argument is the Dual System Model of Cognition. This model comprises two systems – the ‘working memory,’ which is deliberative, and ‘the filter,’ which is intuitive and automatic. As per this model, the sensations humans attribute to memory or action are filtered first. This process of filtration affects the cognitive workload of users and shapes their interaction with technological systems.
Grier further highlights that this process, and any subsequent processing in working memory, are heavily influenced by humans’ pattern recognition abilities. The author promises to delve deeper into these themes in forthcoming articles. Topics to be discussed will include human pattern recognition, the importance of perceptual and cognitive salience in user-friendly system design, the challenges with lower demand tasks, the interaction of stress and task demand on human-system performance, among other cognitive and behavioural science aspects.
In conclusion, Grier advocates for a practical approach towards enhancing total system performance – one that lay emphasis on balancing design technology and understanding human behaviour. This approach can offer beneficial insights for behavioural scientists, human factor experts, UX product managers and technology developers, enabling them to create better, user-friendlier systems and technology.