Cognitive Design

Check out the open access International Journal of Design.  It includes many articles of relevance to cognitive designers for example,  25 Positive Emotions in Human-Product Interactions.  There is a current call out (due March 1, 2013) for papers on designing for subjective well-being.

Like behavior change, designing for well-being is one of the grand challenges of cognitive design.  Well-being, often viewed as a combination of  health, prosperity and happiness is being defined by the editors as “someone’s enduring life appreciation.” They point out there is growing interest in the topic and that:

“This growing interest can be observed in the lively discussions on topics such as empathic design, value-centred design, socially responsive design, meaningful design, positive design, and happiness-driven design.”

I agree. They are looking for long and short papers  that present frameworks and tools for well-being driven design as well as a discussion of the ethical and social implications.

About three years ago in my Cognitive Design class at Northwestern a small group of students focused on applying insights from reversal theory to hard design problems.   They used it as a way to model motivational states – one of the four psychology states (motivational, affective, intellectual and volitional) we study in cognitive design.

The idea behind reversal theory is that human motivations are complex and often conflicting. We can model motivation in terms of four types of states and how we switch or reverse our positions on each. The four states include how we are:

1.  playful or serious

2.  other or self-focused

3. focused on control or sympathy

4.  conforming or challenging.

Our motivation in any given context can be explained as a mixture of these four states. Changes in our motivation are caused by reversals in any one of the states. For example when we go from playful to serious or from sympathetic to controlling. They shape the meaning we assign to events and objects which in turn generate emotions such as enjoyment, communal feeling, caring and a sense of freedom.

Michael Apter, a leading researcher in reversal theory goes farther emphasizing the central role of motivation in determining emotion:

“But to the extent to which designers deliberately attempt to induce emotions, they typically overlook the fact that emotions arise only through motivations, each emotion representing a desirable or undesirable way of experiencing a particular motivation.  Reversal theory has the potential to provide a framework for design by identifying ways in which ‘things’ (in the most general sense) induce motivational states. “

To bring it to a sharper point, as cognitive designers we can consider features and functions that trigger a reversal in any of the four mental states described above.

For a designer friendly introduction check out the reversal theory training site.

The first round of competition for the M-prize on innovating innovation just closed. There are a 134 entries presenting hacks (disruptive ideas) or stories on how we can make innovation a natural act for organizations. It is a wonderful resource for cognitive designers looking for the latest thinking on improving innovation.

I submitted a hack, Create an Army of Innovators with 125 habit formation cards, that presents the work I am doing with Jason Becker’s  mobile app development team. We are creating an online marketplace for decks of knowledge cards  designed to create new habits that you can access from an iPhone or iPad.

We are going to launch in iTunes a bit later in the year with 5 decks designed to create the innovation habit and 2 decks for mastering personal change including a deck of Willpower cards. Additional decks are already in the works and we are looking to partner with others interested in creating knowledge cards to address a specific behavior change or skill building challenge.

Earlier this year I described a design contest sponsored by the BrainArt project that looked especially relevant for cognitive designers. They wanted submissions that use art and design to convey the neuroscience of everyday pleasure.  There were many entries and the results can be viewed in a virtual gallery. 

I was especially proud that my son, Maxim Clare won a special mention for his piece on:

VIRTUAL IMMERSION, REAL REWARD

“Video games are akin to the mind in that they create worlds. Immersion is when we find ourselves lost in these worlds. To be lost in these worlds is to free of what was once possible. The physiology responds with bursts of neurotransmitters from the reward and attention centers. The process drives us deeper. A cycle is born, we are immersed.”

His graphic illustrates Mario, a well-known video game character morphing into a dopamine molecule.  He developed this in part as a response to: An argument against immersion in video games.

Immersion is just one concept developed during the BrainArt contest that is relevant to cognitive designers.  I am interested to hear from readers that see others.

The Francis & Taylor publishing group offers many books and journals relevant to cognitive design.  Checkout their new digital catalog that provides easy access to their behavioral science journals including access to 100 free articles.

Interested in taking a cognitive design oriented class from a world class university and instructor? How about doing it online and for free? Check out these options from Coursera:

• Gamification
• Drugs and the Brain
• Basic Behavioral Neurology
• Networked Life

and more.

I am interested to hear from readers about other free (and top quality) resources for learning about cognitive design.

The Design and Emotion Society is holding its 8th international conference in London, September 11-14.

The conference theme is out of control or how the design community should respond to the “crisis and chaos” that appears to be engulfing the globe.  The organizers see two general responses. The first is to approach design as problem solving where we try and manage and mitigate the crisis and chaos. The second is to approach design as opportunity mapping where we leverage crisis and chaos as ways to a positive future.

While this is a bit lofty, the design community does have the opportunity for major impact if emerging innovations such as sustainable design, design thinking, design for the base of the pyramid and design science get legs around the globe.

I hope to hear from readers that attend the conference.

The BrainArt project has a call out for submissions that use art and design to compellingly illustrate the neuroscience of pleasure.    They are looking for explorations or reactions to the theme “Life Pleasures & the Brain” cast in media that ranges from illustrations and digital art to sculptures or music and that are grounded in the neuroscience of the reward circuit and dopamine.

The contest includes a top prize of $5K, participation in an exhibit and other benefits.  Innovators keep the copyrights to their work the deadline is September 1, 2012.

This is a natural contest for cognitive designers as it seeks to translate the neuroscience and psychology of pleasure into the construction of an artifact. The reward circuit and attending cognitive psychology plays a fundamental role in savoring, wanting, liking, learning, habit formation and many aspects of motivation, decision-making and behavior.  If you are a bit rusty on the scientific background, I recommend  The Compass of Pleasure.  It is an easy read, provides nearly complete coverage and is current.

While this contest is more about art than design, there are several media categories of special interest to cognitive designers, most notably the one on communication design:

“Identify an opportunity, and envision a complete rethink, or new approach, to a campaign or consumer experience in relation to this year’s theme “Life Pleasures and the Brain”. Create an emotionally driven brand that is visionary and disruptive in its thinking. It’s about generating a journey that is unique, rational and that has the energy and drive to transform opinions and to allow people to make a deep connection which will in turn incite participation.”

Consider for example, designing an experience to ignite a movement to improve brain health, achieve positive behavior change or celebrate the existential pleasures of work.

Other media categories of interest to cognitive designers include the written word and space design.  Of course this contest is a great opportunity for cognitive designers to partner with artists or visual designers and compete in any of the 10 media categories.

Judges are looking for how well you communicate a concept with respect to the contest’s theme (life pleasures & the brain) but are most interested in unique personal experiences and expressions. That is where a lot of good design and art comes from.

MISSING:  Enough physical activity during the school day to help avoid childhood obesity. REWARD offered to any party (school program or technology developer) that can find it by April 2, 2012.

There is a $100,000 reward for the school programs that do the best at engaging kids in quality physical activity and a $50,000 reward  for technology developers that can deliver innovative ways to motivate daily physical activity at school at beyond.

This a national innovation contest with a total of $0.5M in prize money.  Definitely a cognitive design challenge.

Image:  Physical Activity – the best medicine?

The Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology offers world-class training for those interested in becoming designers, design thinkers and even design researchers and scholars. They just announced a new executive format for earning a Masters in Design Methods. Classes meet two weekends a month for 20 months for a total fee of approximately $51K.

“This program is for exceptional design, management, engineering, and other professionals who wish to acquire robust design methods and frameworks and apply design thinking to the development of products, communications, services, and systems.”

The idea is you can get world-class design thinking training and keep your day job. The program includes courses focused on cognitive design.  For example, The Brains Behavior and Design course draws on behavioral economics and cognitive science to equip designers with a toolkit for influencing consumer decision-making. You can download the toolkit for free.

Interested to hear from readers that are part of this program or other graduate training programs in design thinking that use the executive format.

GE and their venture partners have established a $100M open innovation challenge aimed at ideas to improve the diagnostics and early detection of breast cancer. Phase One of the competition is closed but you can still submit ideas for review and possible venture investment.

While the ideas in the first round are scientific and engineering in nature, there is plenty of room for innovative approaches to process, behavior change, decision support and other cognitive aspects involved in the diagnostics, early detection and personalized treatment of breast cancer.   I will be watching for new sub-challenges that are cognitive design related.

In the meantime, I would like to hear from readers that are interested in forming a team to work on future rounds of this innovation challenge.