Raitis Linde

Fridge full of post-it notes (what a variety there!) and a shopping list represents something about our mind. In this case we reduce a workload from a memory by externalizing our memory to the outside environment. With these artifacts humans represent information taken from their mind trying to improve their cognitive abilities. External cognition topic is important topic in Human Computer Interaction field as a complement to mental model theory in order to explain human cognition.

As it is suggested in Interaction design book, we use such external representations in order to:

Cognitive artifacts are different from cognitive tools in a way that artifacts are in static representational form while tools require more interaction, just like a modelling software which outputs different results relating to the input data.

Examples

I am amazed how different these artifacts are in various cultures. For instance the quipu recording devices used by Inca civilization – strings containing knots helping to remember something.

As another example a solar clock (sundial) could be mentioned where time is being measured by the position of the sun. First used probably by Egyptians on about 1500 B.C.

Future

As our manufacturing tools improve, cognition representing is becoming more complex. Take visualization of complex networks library or another data-driven vizualization library as an inspiration. What a variety of information design! As the amount of (recognized and processed) data is increasing there is a demand of relevant ways how to visualize them.

cognitive artifacts, external cognition, hci, Human Computer Interaction, Information Design, post-it notes

I am very interested in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) classess I am taking now. So this time about mental models that we were looking at.

The idea of the mental models seems very useful to me, as it is important to take into account what is going on in people’s heads  in order to make a successful user interface design (and of course other kind of design). With the successful design I mean one that user can learn easily and naturaly and use it effectively.

OpenID interface proposal

As the task for discussions in HCI class we needed to prepare proposals for a successful OpenID interface. We had to test the design on one user at least. In my case I used the Skype screen-sharing feature to watch and listen how my girlfriend is using various OpenID log in designs, such as Facebook, Twitter (at RWW to comment an article).

I immediately noticed a problem that different services puts different contexts on log in feature. In other words, users might think that by logging in by, for instance, Twitter account, it not only allows to post a comment in RWW, but also affects her Twitter accout (will a note appear in my Twitter? will I be required to follow someone?).

So I tried to develop common interface for all services (Facebook, Google, Twitter etc.), meaning that there won’t be differently designed pop-up windows, only similar username/password/url text boxes. However, I guess this violates the idea of OpenID, that you are redirected to the authentic website (e.g. Facebook) to confirm your data in order to log into website (such as RWW). Otherwise, I personally would be hesitant  to share my Facebook password with other website I don’t know.

So, my design was more like attempt to highlight a problem of different contexts in OpenID log in design.

Different understandings of OpenID

In the class we tried our designs on each other. I was surprised how diverse understandings (mental models) about OpenID were. And I was more surprised that each person defended their own mental model (belief?) quite convincingly, even if their mental model was incorrect. For instance, some people claimed that OpenID is a big database containing all password, while some people said that in their understanding it is decentralized collection of databases.

What is a mental model?

Before reading books, doing excercises and having discussions I had very blurred understanding of mental models. I knew that this is something that happens in people’s heads, but that’s all. How can that be used in design, and why? Does it change by the time? Do everyone have their own mental model and does it differ a lot? There were many questions I had no clue about (actually I didn’t have questions before that ).

From a book I understood that main concepts of mental models are information processing and external cognition.

Information processing

The mind is thought as information processor. Information comes into mind, goes through various processing stages (comparing, matching) and goes out in form of behaviour (including, no reaction at information). There is much interest in calculating how long does it take to perform a certain task.

Of course, there is limited amount of information that is possible to process. That creates bottlenecks in procession information.

Information overload is a common concept nowadays, so there is a need for structuring information, so I guess librarians and information designers (in physical world) together with information architects (in digital world) are doing a great job in making a complex clear.

As I am personally interested in information architecture and am following community for a longer time, I have noticed that there are some difficulties in defining this practice. However, I am glad that effort in explaining IA is being made and on right side there is a pretty neat explanation if IA. I guess something the same could be with information design practice.

External cognition

This concept refers to thought that people interact with or create information through using a variety of external representations including books, maps, diagrams, notes, images.

This is for reducing cognitive load:

1. memory load,
2. computing,
3. and to reflect changes (crossing out what’s done, manipulating models).

cognition, hci, Human Computer Interaction, mental models, openid, ui, user interface

From the moment when I started taking HCI course (2 lectures already), I really feel that I have broadened my understaning of various computer sytems. Coming from Computer Science background (strictly from Web development field), everything around HCI was associated to me with PCs and usability of websites. Now I have seen that apart from that, there exists various original computer systems used in manufactory.  There are washing machines that we are using often with their own user interfaces. Not mentioning mobile phones (oh hell, how many pain I have experienced with mine), photo cameras and other often used products.

Well, the thing that also surprised me was the mathematics (actually a lot) in HCI field, especially for predictive models. While the math formulas seems quite scary, actually they can bring a benefit by predicting the user behaviour without making time consuming experiments. That includes famous Fitts’s law (practical illustration there), Hick’s law and Keystroke level model.

Then there are those descriptive models, meant to provide context and vocabulary for thinking about a problem. For instance thinking about what  people are doing with each of their hands while using a computer system (is the interaction comfortable both for left and right handies?). Other popular theories include Key-action model (operation of keys on keyboard), Three-State Model of Graphical lnput (relationship between pointing devices and the interaction techniques they offer) and Model for Mapping Degrees of Freedom to Dimensions.

Our task was also to find a bug from our daily life. As I mentioned later, I had some pain with my mobile phone, so this was a perfect moment for letting it out

When we analysed HCI issues, we divided them in 4 categories by their relation – performance, mental models, affordances (action possibilities an artifact offers to a user) and organisational problems. Like in my case it is possible to state technical problem as a HCI problem. For instance the speed issue is more engineering problem.

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