Cognitive Design

 Imagine a high-reliability, non-invasive technology that can recognize your thoughts in real time. So, if you are thinking about “celery” or an “elephant” the technology could recognize that and use the information to drive any number of applications.

Exciting progress towards this functionality is reported in a post, Decoding Brain Activity, on the Brain Stimulant blog.  Although very much in the R&D phase, the scope of thoughts that can be recognized and the  reliability levels reported are very impressive.

Check out Donald Norman’s latest book, The Design of Future Things.  His basic thesis is that in the future the things we design will be smart (emotionally and intellectually) permitting a more natural form of interactions (one similar to a horse and rider) and even achieving a level of human-machine symbiosis. It is people and their artifacts working together – with machines augmenting the capabilities of humans that make up the design of future things. Homes, cars, workspaces, airports, robots and other artifacts will be designed to work with us at three levels including the visceral (automatic and unconscious responses), behavioral and reflective (conscious self awareness).

 He offers six rules for designers of these smart machines of the future: 

1. Provide rich, complex and natural signals

2. Be predictable

3. Provide good conceptual models

4. Make outputs understandable

5. Provide continual awareness without annoyance

6. Exploit natural mappings.

 Being predictable and running on a good conceptual model means I can understand (to a degree) the artifact’s workings, know how it will behave and also come to trust it especially since its outputs are understandable. Rich and natural signals that support my continued awareness of (and feedback about) its operation without annoyance makes it is an active part of my environment. These are many of the same things that make my interactions with other people work.  

 All of these rules effectively lower the cognitive load associated with the artifact without sacrificing functionality. There is a higher degree of integration between the functional states of the artifact and the mental states of the people using the artifact. Indeed, in the case of a symbiotic relationship they are fused together in a dynamic feedback loop.  This represent the fifth level of cognitive fit (1= agitate, 2 = tolerate, 3= resonate, 4 = accelerate and 5 = integrate) that we have discussed elsewhere in this blog.  

 One example Professor Norman gives is that of a Cobot being developed at the Laboratory for Intelligent Mechanical Systems at Northwestern. In this example, humans can move heavy payloads (e.g. automobile engines) in complex environment smoothly and easily by sharing control and intelligence with a robot.  The robot provides not just mechanical muscle but also brains by providing natural resistance to suggested motions that are not consistent with the task or could be unsafe.  All of this takes place NOT via a controller to manipulate a robot arm but by directly interacting with the artifact (e.g. by wrapping a chain around the automobile engine to lift it). This is consistent with rule #6 – exploit natural mappings.

 In a provocative afterwards, Professor Norman describes an imaginary interview he had with an intelligent machine about a set of design rules they (intelligent machines) developed to improve their interactions with people.  We will review those rules and their implications for cognitive design in a future post.

Check out the on-line encylopedia on interaction-design.org.  Clear writing on some of the cognitive aspects of design. 

Of particular interest is the article on Cognitive Ergonomics.

Cognitive ergonomics (sometimes called cognitive engineering) is focused on understanding and supporting the cognition of work especially when it is complex, time-constrained or related to public safety. The focus is on process or work redesign (e.g. to lower cognitive load), human-machine interfaces, training programs and technologies to augment cognition.

Cognitive ergonomics is about remaking work to better fit the human mind. One of the core pursuit of cognitive design.

In the US, cognitive ergonomics is now flying the flag of cognitive engineering and decision making (CEDM) a large technical interest group within the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

We will track CEDM in this blog and report on specific findings and tools useful for cognitive designers.

Prospective memory or remembering to remember is an important cognitive function especially in an interrupt driven, complex, demographically aging world.

For example, you are driving home from work and  remember that you need to water the plants. How will you remember to do that when you get home? 

We typically think about memory retrospecitively as the encoding, storage and recall of past events. Prospective memory is about the encoding, storage and recall necessary for carrying out intended actions at the right time in the future.   We are trying to set an internal reminder for ourselves.

Of course there are more serious examples – a nurse remembering to double check the type and dose of a medication before administering it to a patient, remembering to buckle your seat belt up before driving your car and remembering to file your taxes on time.  

Defining artifacts that support and enhance the prospective memory of users in everyday situations at home and at work is fundamental to good cognitive design.   

And it is happening everywhere. To bring this point home one of the things we ask students to do in the Cognitive Design course at Northwestern University is to go out and look and make a list of the artifacts they find that support prospective memory. Here is what they bring back:

Built into artifacts I otherwise use:

• -Dryer and oven alarms

• -Low battery alerts in smoke alarms, cell phone, computers

• -Seat belt, required maintenance and low fuel alerts in your car

• -Show reminders in digital TV

• -Formal or inform bulletin boards (posting items on the fridge)

• -Vendor reminders (service your car, furnace, etc.)

• -Electronic health reminders from physician’s office

Artifacts dedicated to supporting prospective memory:

• -To do list
• -Calendar or planner (paper or electronic)

• -Programmable reminders on your watch, phone and PDA

• -Programmable reminders in exercise equipment

• -Medication/pill organizer and dispenser

• -Electronic memory aids for Alzheimer or brain injury patients 

There are even Internet-based general purpose reminder service (e.g. Memo to Me) that will automatically remind you about birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates. Check it out, the basic service is free.

So what can cognitive science tell us about how to design artifacts to better manage the prospective memory load for users? Fortunately, there were several books published in 2007 that review the state of the art of prospective memory research. We  will discuss them in this blog with a special eye towards design implications.  And there are some very provocative ideas.

BTW – with a simple sensor, alarm and tiny never-die battery we can invent “the remember to water me” flower pot so that you will never forget to water the plants again.

 Augment cognition (AC) is another rapidly emerging field that is a close cousin of cognitive design. Like NeuroErgonomics it is focused on creating artifacts that integrate with human cognition to amplify or accelerate it (5th level of cognitive design). More specifically,  the goal of AC is to develop closed-loop human computer systems that increase cognitive capabilities by an order of magnitude.

There have been four international conferences held on the topic and an International Society has been formed so the field has traction. So far no killer app.

DARPA has a strong interest in AC has has even prepared a video on the future of augmented cognition. Must warn you it is a bit long but they are trying to breath some realism and design detail into the scenario.

We will track AC closely in this blog.