Cognitive Design

There is no doubt that the interactive video game is one of the most successful cognitive designs of all times.  We have a general idea of what makes a good interactive game design tick but don’t understand them well enough to consistently reproduce the effects, especially in areas outside of pure entertainment such as education and health. That is why I am always on the look out for new scientific studies on the video game design pattern.

Take for example, the recent research announced by the Association of Psychological Science, Getting to the Heart of the Appeal of Videogames.   This research studied almost 1000 serious gamers and hundreds of casual gamers. An impressive scope relative to other video game studies.

What they found was that the allure of the game was not the ability to “escape from the world” as is often argued but the ability to try on different characters that you would ideally like to be.

More specifically:

“The research found that giving players the chance to adopt a new identity during the game and acting through that new identity – be it a different gender, hero, villain – made them feel better about themselves and less negative.”

The new identity has the greatest impact when it represents the ideal you but still overlaps with some characteristics you currently have.

This has important implications for cognitive designers. There are many ways to incorporate “trying on the ideal you” in other designs.

Adding a specific think-and-feel experience to a product for customers or an internal service for employees is one way to use cognitive design to differentiate an offering.  You provide the same core functionality as a competitor but you differentiate by delivering it in a way that meets a deeply felt psychological need. For example, a product or service that makes a donation to a worthy cause when purchased. That delivers a small but potent “feel-good” by doing good experience for the shopper.

According to The Integer Group, how you make the donation can have a big impact. In a recent research study they found:

“When choosing between two brands that benefit a cause, 43 percent of women say they choose the brand that donates with every purchase over a brand that donates a set amount.” 

They also found that causes with an emotional message devoted to disease prevention generated a more intense feel-good for women.

These psychographic findings have clear implications for cognitive designers working in product and service innovation.