Cognitive Design

 As a cognitive designer I am always on the look out for new scientific insights into extreme mental states such as the aesthetic experience, religious beliefs, sudden enlightenment and the like.  My hope is that we can use insights into such states to design more cognitive impact into our otherwise mundane services, programs and products.  

A recent article, Religious Ideas Burrow into our Brain, tries to unpack the cognitive science of religious belief.   The key to their cognitive power lies in the fact that religious beliefs  are counter intuitive (concern other worldly entities and events) and yet are strongly endorsed by authority figures such as parents.

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One question I am often asked is, does your approach to cognitive design also include emotion? My answer is empathetically yes!  I believe the classic distinction between cognition (i.e. intellectual or rational) and affective (i.e. emotional or irrational) has been shattered.

This is key point for cognitive designers. If we aspire to design for how minds actually work, we must understand the basic interplay between intellectual and emotional processes. Assuming they are separate and distinct, when in fact they are not leads to bad designs.

There is a lot of recent evidence that supports rejecting the long-standing distinction between cognition and affect. For a great overview check out the article (on the Dana Foundation website), Discovering that Rational Economic Man Has a Heart. While you are there, also check out Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science. All the chapters are free online and several promise some useful insights for cognitive designers. 

The massive investment we are making via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act presents an ideal opportunity for the design community to demonstrate the value of technical design in numerous disciplines.  It is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to demonstrate the national importance of  broader design thinking. We need to step up!

I took a run at that in an earlier post showing how we can use cognitive design to get the most out of the $19B being invested in electronic medical records.  Obviously only a tiny part of what designers can do for the overall stimulus. I did receive some very good feedback, thank you.  

In response to some of the feedback I have created a 10-slide overview of EMR 2.0, the cognitive redesign I am proposing  for electronic medical record software. 

Let me know what you think.  

[Source:  Economist, Food for Thought]

Experiencing meaning is an essential aspect of living the “good life” for all age groups according to  an interesting study from the MetLife Mature Market Institute.   The study looked at how various age groups balanced priorities such as money, medicine, meaning and place in order to create a good life.  Meaning always scored the highest but is particularly strong for one segment they labeled the meaning-minded:

“The Meaning-Minded are more likely to be older, female, retired, with more assets, and with moderate income. Of the Meaning-Minded group, 52% are age 65 to 74, 32% are age 55 to 64, and 16% are age 45 to 54. Sixty-four percent of the Meaning-Minded are retired, while 23% are employed full-time. Forty-nine percent have investable assets of $500K or more, while 34% have investable assets of less than $250K.”

This offers some demographic insight for those designers interested in triggering meaning and purpose with their work.  The other segments include balanced givers, balanced individualists, financially focused and hyper individualists.

A book on how neurotechnology is ushering in a new era on the scale of the agricultural, industrial and information revolutions. Not out until July 2009 but being a fan of the authors blog, I expect it to be an outstanding read for cognitive designers. 

1.  A fast user experience above all else.

2. Obey the laws of cognitive science. Yes!

3. Information density over aesthetic enhancement. 

Or that’s my paraphrase of a recent interview with Irene Au, Google’s Director of User Experience.   

As a cognitive designer I am constantly searching for evidence-based ideas (or even informed hunches) on how to tweak features, functions and forms to induce specific mental states and processes in folks that use the products, services, concepts or experiences I design. One such insight is mentioned in a recent article in Science Daily, Key to Happiness is Gratitude and Men May Be Locked Out.   

Gratitude is an emotional state usually created through an expression of thankfulness for receiving a gift or some form of support. Recent research suggests that experiencing gratitude is an essential part of being happy.  So designing artifacts that facilitate the expression of gratitude should otherwise create a happy mental state.  This design  challenge may be linked to gender or at least the psychographics of how one views the burdens and blessings of receiving a gift.  

No matter, a great gift idea from a cognitive design standpoint is one that enhances the recievers happiness by making it easy (low social anxiety, fast, low cost, little effort) and appropriate (reflects values and personality) for them to express gratitude for receiving it.  

Bottom line - build functionality for the expression of gratitude into product, service and workplace designs to enhance happiness.    

Found another competition that is ripe for the application of cognitive design, this one sponsored by the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Program  and Ashoka’s Changemaker Program.

The fuse is very short – entries are due April 1st.

Competition aside, this is a great site for cognitive designers.  There are 103 entries from 30 countries that you can learn from.  There is also excellent advice (decision types, flavors and dos and don’ts) on how to design nudges. Remember, nudges are seemingly small behavioral influencers that we embed in the environment that suggest an improved course of action but still respect the right of the individual to self determine. They are just-in-time “pushes” that help us make better choices and avoid failures in self-regulation.  

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To search for an event near you use the Dana Foundation’s international calendar.  There are 132 listed so far and I even found some in Indiana! If you attend an event please post a comment and share your learning.