The next installment of Kevin Griffin’s blog on Mobile Design.
Cognitive Effort.
In this installment of my thoughts on mobile design, I thought we would take a look at the concept of ‘cognitive effort’. I think I first heard that term used in reference to design from William Van Hecke (@fetjuel) when he spoke at Voices that Matter in Philly. When a guy from The OmniGroup talks to be about making great apps, I tend to shut up and listen.
We have all thought about cognitive effort at some point:
- “Does this screen look too busy?”
- “We should move this functionality out of this screen.”
What increases cognitive effort?
Every question, action, dialog, gesture, tap, shake, voice communiqué we ask the user ultimately ends in some kind of effort be it physical, cognitive or verbal. Sometimes we intentionally make these things progressively harder, games for example. Sometimes we unintentionally make these things progressively harder, continually adding functionality to a screen.