Cognitive Aspects

According to the Oxford dictionary, cognition is “the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses” (Oxford University Press, n.d.). There are two general modes of cognition are experiential and reflective. Experiential mode is an active state of acquiring information, whereas reflective mode is a state of retrieving that information. Cognition can be broken down into specific processes such as attention, perception, memory, and reasoning (Rogers, Sharp, & Preece, 2012, pp. 66-67).

Reflections

Cognition allows users to interact with computer systems and learn how to use them effectively. It also allows users to troubleshoot problems. Working in the IT department I take calls from users around the hospital I work at complaining about various problems. I am able to utilize cognition through analysis, reasoning, and problem solving to come up with solutions to the problems.

Thoughts

Taking cognitive processes into consideration when designing hardware and software is a key part of interaction design. Users should be able to utilize these processes quickly while using products to have a good user experience. If it takes too long to analyze a situation the user will get frustrated, as I see at work on a daily basis. However, is not a common problem for each individual user.

References

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Cognition. Retrieved from Oxford Dictionaries: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cognition

Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., & Preece, J. (2012). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.



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