Cognition and Learning: How can I help people learn from a Design??

Greetings future Designers,

 

Weeks 5 lecture summary..

According to the Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell W., Holden, K., & Butler, J., (2003)

Chunking is a technique  of combining many units of information into a limited number of units or chunks, so that the information is easier to process and remember.

Classical Conditioning is a technique used to associate a stimulus with an unconscious physical or emotional response.

Operant Conditioning is a technique used to modify behavior by reinforcing desired behaviors and ignoring or punishing undesired behaviors.

Serial Position Effects is a phenomenon of memory in which items presented at the beginning and the end of a list are more likely to recalled than items in the middle of the list.

Picture Superiority Effect refer to a picture can be memorize better than word.

Forgiveness refer to a design should help people avoid errors and minimize the negative consequences of errors when it happen.

more on the Principles....

1. Chunking.

    The term chunk refers to a unit of information in short-term memory e.g. strings of letter, a word, or a series of numbers. Information will be converted into a small numbers of unit to be efficiently processed by short-term memory.

     A design that applied chunking will simplify it but by applying chunking into a design is a misapplication of the principle as it is originally a task involving memory.

     Chunking usage is to recall and retain information also can be used to solves problems. The information that being searched or scanned unable to chunked.

      In an environment that has lot of distractions, chunking can be used in this situation to display information.

Figure 5.1 My mother battery box

2. Classical Conditioning.

     In design, this principle is used to influenced the appeal of a design or to influence specific kind of behaviors. A design that being pairs repeatedly with a stimuli will condition an association over time.

E.g. A stimuli that causes pleasure/pain or give positive/negative emotional response (sound, images,experiences, physical contact etc,)

 

Figure 5.2 Mc'Donald

3. Operant Conditioning.

     In design context, this principle observes whether behavioral changes are needed. A positive and negative reinforcement should be focused rather than punishment. In early training phase, a fixed ratio schedules is important as basic behaviors is mastered then proceed to another reinforcement.

Buy 1 free 1 ticket for GSC when pay with Citibank (according in the Citibank website)

4.  Serial Position Effect.

      This effect happen when people try to recall items from a list. The items at the beginning and at the end are better recalled than the items in the middle. The improved recall for items at the beginning af a list is called a Primacy Effect while the improved recall for items at the end of the list is called a Recency Effect.

Figure 5.4 A list of Fruit Family in Cognitive Science Orentation

4.1 Primacy Effect.

      The initial items in a list are stored in long-term memory more efficiently than the items later in the list. Stronger primacy effect happen when the item in the list is slowly presented as there is more time to store the initial items in long-term memory and weaker primacy effect happen when the items in the list is rapidly presented as there is less time to store the initial items in the long-term memory.\

4.2 Recency Effect.

       The last few items are still in the working memory and still readily available. It is not affected by the rate of the items presentation but affected by passage of time and an additional information.

       In design, for visual stimuli , the items that presented early in a list have the greatest influenced. They will be recalled better but it will influenced the interpretation of the later items. Auditory stimuli however, the items late in  a list will have a greater influence. These effect also describe a general selection preference known as Order Effect; the first and last items in a list are more likely to be selected than items in the middle.Therefore, the important items should be presented at the beginning or at the end of a list in order to maximize recall.

5. Picture Superiority Effect.

     Picture are generally more easily recognized and recalled than words. This principle is commonly used in instructional design, advertising, technical writing and other design contexts that require easy and accurate recall of information. This affect will apply when people are asked to recall something more than 30 second from time of exposure and the strongest is when the picture represent a common, concrete things vs abstract things. The effect will diminishes as the information become more complex. The usage of this principle is to improve the recognition and recall key information.

E.g. The picture of each troop in the Clash of Clan online game.

6. Forgiveness

     Forgiving design provide a sense of security and stability, which in turn will foster a willingness to learn, explore and use the design. The common strategies for incorporating forgiveness in design are:

6.1 Good Affordances.

      The physical characteristics of the design influence it correct usage.

       E.g. The Nokia and Asus cable is different.  Nokia cable cannot be use on Asus. 

(Photo source: Own phone and friend phone)

6.2 Reversibility of Actions.

       One or more action can be reversed if an error occurs or the intent of the person changes.

E.g. The player can cancel the training of the troop in Clash of Clan by pressing the cancel button.

6.3 Safety nets.

       Device or process that minimizes the negative consequences of a catastrophic error of failure.

 E.g. The Windows 7 and 8 Bluescreen. It's a process automatically generated by the system when there is a error occurred internally and to prevent further damage t the system. (Photo source: Own PC and friends PC)

6.4 Confirmation.

       Verification of intent that is required before critical actions are allowed.

      

Figure 5.1.2 The famous Android/iOs online game, Clash of Clan. Before removing the troops there is verification whether the player really want to remove the troops.

6.5 Warnings.

       Signs, prompts or alarms used to warn of imminent danger.

       E.g The beeping sound in certain vehicle tell the user need to wear safety belt. (Photo source: Friends car)

6.6 Help.

      The information's that assist in basic operations, troubleshooting and an error recovery.

       E.g. A troubleshooter will pop up when there is software failed to respond in pc. 

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Hierarchy of Needs and Design

Hello and welcome back! 

During the previous lesson, we have learnt that there are four basic activities of design in the design life cycle model. This time, we have learnt another important topic which is the Hierarchy of Needs and Design. 

The hierarchy that we are referring to is based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. There are 5 sections in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which are stated in the diagram below:

We can also relate a product's design evolution based on this hierarchy. Lets take bags for example. Initially, bags were invented to fulfill its functionality only, which is to provide a medium for users to keep their things and easier for the users to carry their belongings around. Next, it fulfills the criteria of reliability when people start to improve the materials to make bags from paper bags to thick cushioned bags; depending on its function and type of objects it can keep. The bag evolution steps up into usability stage when the design is improved so that it is easy and comfortable to use. 

Bags reached the proficiency stage when more types of bags were introduced such as laptop bag, ladies' hand bag, children school bag, shopping bag, travelling bag and so on. Users are offered with countless choices of bags to choose from, based on their needs and comfort. The design of bags continues to develop until the creativity stage, which focuses more on the aesthetic beauty of bag designs with other features such as leather bags, for instant. They also come with various colours, shapes and sizes that allows the user to choose according to their own style and taste of fashion.

That's all for this time! See you soon for the next lesson summary!

What is meant by the Design Life Cycle Model?

Hello and greetings everyone!

For our first week of introductory to Cognition and Design class, we have highlighted some important points to remember. Before we dive in deeper into the topic discussed, lets see what does "design" means?

Generally, the word "design" means an activity that translates an idea into a blueprint of something useful; in short, it allows us to create something better for everyone and the environment as well.

Before we can start designing something, we must look into the design life cycle model first. The design life cycle model is used to describe a process of planning, building, testing, and implementing the new design into the society. There are 4 basic activities in the design life cycle model, which are listed in the diagram below.

1. Identify Needs and Establish Requirements

* Before we start to design a product, we must first ask these questions; 

(i) What does the user wants?

(ii) Will it solve problems that are faced by the user?

(iii) Is the design suitable for users regardless of age, race and gender?

(iv) How reliable is the design?

* Once we have all the answers for these questions, then only we can proceed on developing the alternative designs to meet the demands of the users.

2. Develop Alternative Designs

* The design of the product must be user-friendly. There are several things that need to be considered in the process of designing :

(i) Type of materials     (iii) Safety

(ii) Usability                 (iv) Reliability

3. Build the Proposed Design

* Once the design is done, it's time to turn the blueprints into a real thing! At this stage, it is important to make sure that we don't overspent on the making of the design product. Proper and careful budget plan is required to avoid wastage of money and materials.

4. Evaluate the Design

* Before releasing the design product to the users, it must first be tested by a small group of users so that better improvements can be done on the design product and increases the product's market potential.

Well, this article sums up of what we had learnt during the first lesson. More updates coming soon!

Design & Perception : How Can I Influence the Way a Design is Perceived?

What is Gestalt Principles of Actions?

Gestalt Principles of Actions are basically a set of rules of the organisation of perceptual scenes. We perceive things as soon as we see saw it by the way it looks, size, colour, shape, and so on. These features can affect the way users think of a design whether it looks appealing, easy to use or the other way round.

Here are some principles related to the Gestalt Principles of Actions:

(a) Figure-ground Articulation

* we perceive our environment by differentiating between objects and their backgrounds.
* this means there are 2 different components in the object; in which they are different in terms of colour, shape, and size. The first component will have an object-like character, whereas the background of the object appears as a "mere" background.

For example, this blue badge (left) from our faculty's open day consists of 2 components; the picture of a head and the wording "WE'RE GREAT" in white which represents the faculty's slogan and the blue background of the badge that acts merely as a plain background with no specific meaning.

(b)Orientation Sensitivity

* refers to visual processing of line orientations; in which certain orientations are easier and quicker to process than the others. 

*it also means that there is one odd object in the midst of similar orientation, in which it differs from the normal condition that we usually see.

Based on the picture, we can see that the orientation of the design is similar except for one which is in the third row. The other shapes are slanting from upper right to bottom left but that one particular shape in the third row is slanting from upper left to bottom right.

(c) Proximity Principle

* objects that are close to each other will be seen as belonging together.

* usually this principle is used in grouping objects in a design.

The picture above is an interface screenshot from a Samsung Tablet 7.0" that uses Android KitKat 4.4.2 version. As we can see at the right side of the picture, the applications are grouped together to indicate that they are the frequently used apps in the tablet device.

(d) Interference Effect

*an event in which mental processing is made slower and less accurate by competing mental processes. 

*it usually occurs when the design is different from the normal universal designs that we were adapted of, and resulted in confusion and slower thinking process in the user's mind to interpret the meaning of the design. 

Lets take a look at these pens. Normally, the colour of the pen's cap indicates the colour of its ink colour. However, when the caps of these two pens were changed (pink-coloured ink in purple cap and purple-coloured ink in pink cap), the user might get confused for a while and might be deceived by the cap's colour and might end up using the wrong colour pen.

(e) Consistency Principle

*the design of the object is the ame everywhere and can be understood by people anywheree.

*the users know what it means/how to use it as soon as they see it.

The mouse is used everywhere and can be used by anyone as soon as the users see it. The users can predict how it works and immediately know how to use the mouse efficiently. There are 2 components on the mouse which are the left and right click buttons and the scroll button in the middle. Users don't have to think for too long on figuring out on how to use it as its function is the same regardless its size, colour and brand.