Cognitive Design

In cognitive design we place primary emphasis on using features and functions to create thoughts and feelings.  Objects and artifacts are interesting only in so far as the mental states they create.  It is all about think-and-feel especially in domains where having psychological impact is the primary objective as in education, healthcare, communication, improving knowledge worker productivity, entertainment and many other areas.

We need to design and engineer products, services and even organizations so that they are optimized for how individual and group minds really work. While this statement is a given for regular readers of the Cognitive Design blog, is it far from broadly accepted.

So I am always on the look out for scientific studies that demonstrate the value created by think-and-feel. Take for example, the recent study reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that shows we place more value on experiential purchases than we do material purchases. More specifically, they found experiences such as vacations hold more value than products such as clothes.  Experiences are easier to integrate with our identities and can be savored and shared more flexibility than possessions. They require active participation and naturally tend to be more transformative than objects.

Importantly, the researchers:

“show that the tendency to cling more closely to cherished experiential memories is connected to the greater satisfaction people derive from experiences than possessions”

This reveals the primary importance of cognitive design.