Using Cognitive Psychology to Improve Ux Design

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- We perceive what we expect.

- Our vision is optimized to see structure.

- We seek and use visual structure.

- Our color vision is limited.

- Our peripheral vision is poor, but our brain fills in the gaps.

- Our attention is limited and our memory imperfect.

All of these principles were established in cognitive psychology research and have been applied to UX design. Both Landauer (1987) and Johnson (2010) believed that UX guidelines are not fixed; instead, these guidelines are based on the ways where people perceive, think, learn, and act. In order to apply these guidelines effectively, the important thing is that people understand their scientific basis. The ultimate goal which UX design seeks to achieve is finding the balance of tradeoffs among exploration, enrichment and exploitation of information patched. Johnson’s (2010) primary argument, “That users are ruled—cognitively and, it turns out, psychologically—by specific goals,” underscores this truth.

Best Practices

Understanding the information which has been mentioned before, cognitive psychology is a practical science to understand users’ minds. To bring this down to earth, we need applied steps to match users’ great expectations when they visit websites and applications. It is a well known fact that great user experiences have to be useful, usable and desirable. Gualtieri (2009), who is principal analyst at Forrester Research, reveals that a great user experience created is by these best practices: “1) become your users; 2) design first; 3) trust no one —test; and 4) inject users experience design into your software development life cycle.” Table2: best and next practices lists steps and explains how to achieve that. Then, Table3: user experience design self- diagnostic tool is a self-examination table. It is difficult to be objective when self-checking but this is a great review tool for designers.

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Table 2

Best and Next Practices

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Note. The table2 is from “Best Practices in User Experience (UX) Design “by Gualtieri, M, 2009, Design. Design Compelling User Experiences to Wow your Customers, 1-17.

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Table3

User Experience Design Self-Diagnostic Tool

[pic 2]

Note. The table3 is from “Best Practices in User Experience (UX) Design “by Gualtieri, M, 2009, Design. Design Compelling User Experiences to Wow your Customers, 1-17.

Conclusion

UX design has proved that it requires detailed analysis of human performance; in other words, to develop a friendly user environment requires an understanding of human thoughts. Web-site or application interfaces are direct impression for users, even if they contain a wealth of information, people find it hard to explore if the interfaces are sluggish, ugly, busy, or boring. Cognitive psychology is an effective and useful shortcut for UX designers to master users’ needs and expectations. Designers rarely have a chance to communicate with users, but they can learn basic mental processes though cognitive psychology and get a better hypothesis. In sum, I believe that approaching users’ perceptions of the usefulness, usability and desirability of interface comes with cognitive psychology.

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References

Gualtieri, M. (2009). Best Practices In User Experience (UX) Design. Design Compelling User Experiences to Wow your Customers, 1-17.

Johnson, J. (2010). The Psychological Basis for UI Design Rules [Video file]. Retrieved fromhttp://youtu.be/3Gw2bnwQRno

Landauer, T. K. (1987). Relations between cognitive psychology and computer system design. Interfacing thought: cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction, 1-25.

Ritter, F. E., & Young, R. M. (2001). Embodied models as simulated users: Introduction to this special issue on using cognitive models to improve interface design. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 55(1), 1-14.

Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2015). Cognitive psychology. Nelson Education.

Unger, R., & Chandler, C. (2012). A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making. New Riders.