Cognitive Design

Reading is a powerful and much used cognitive process.  We use it to communicate, learn and have fun. It involves perception, pattern recognition, language comprehension and other mental processes. The experience of reading is strongly shaped by how knowledge is structured – story, book, memo, billboard, etc.

We can improve how well and fast we read through training. Much has been learned about the cognitive science of reading over the last 25 years.  A number of technological innovations ebooks, e-readers, Google books and tablet computers has finally positioned the book for reinvention.

For example, IDEO has presented three interesting iPad-based concepts in The Future of the Book:

Nelson – Topic content is organized in information layers including time, impact, fact check, discussions and recent media coverage

Coupland -  Reading materials is organized around who is reading what in your social or professional network

Alice – A narrative reading experience that is shaped by user interaction.

Each of these concepts satisfies a different cognitive need by changing how I read.  Nelson satisfies my need for completeness, Coupland my need to know what others know and Alice my desire to co-create the story.

There are other ongoing attempts to reinvent thn e book to change how we read and satisfy cognitive needs in new ways. For example,  Flatworld offers the remixable textbook so instructors cacustomize content and students can engage in social learning.   Knowledge cards (my own effort) seeks to reorganize the content of books into a set of linked cards designed to translate concepts into new habits and accelerate behavior change.

No matter, the timing is right to rethink how we structure and deliver knowledge in books to support, accelerate and even integrate with the psychological (intellectual, affective, motivational and volitional) needs of readers.  Given the central role it plays in our mental life, even a small improvement in the cognition of reading could have strong society-wide implications.

Looking forward to hearing from readers that have cognitive design ideas for shifting how we read books to change the world.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 at 9:18 am and is filed under Examples. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.