This section talks about how we focus, what catches our attention and makes us sit up and take notice, how we grab others attention, and what we choose to notice and pay attention to.
Basically our attention is selective, getting our attention depends on how engrossed or involved we are to the specific subject. An example they used in the book was if someone went to a website looking for a particular item then they are on a mission, they are concentrating on a particular task and are filtering through other distractions that they might have fallen victim to if they went to the site not knowing what they wanted to buy.
We also have unconscious selective attention where we are constantly scanning the environment for certain things its are defense mechanism that we are pre programmed with. But for the most part everything is filtered. So we can't expect people to pay attention to information that the designer provides. If you think that the viewer will filter information use things like size, color, animation, video, and sound to draw them to the important things. The most important information if it is critical and needs to be seen make that information stand out ten times more than you think it should be.The things that stand out and get the most attention are danger, food, sex, movement, faces, and stories.This might not be practical or appropriate to use things like food or sex on a website, but you need to be aware of the most common things that pull attention to certain things and use aspect that work in the same way. Use images of close up faces and stories and much as you can when appropriate to also draw attention.
Well practiced skills don't require conscious attention, if you practice something like the piano long enough you begin to memorize the notes and play them without thinking about it, this is that same as when you drive your car home every day, it takes little thought and requires no conscious attention, which can sometimes lead to mistakes.
Expectations of frequency affect attention. The example they used in the book was a man getting a gun onto a plane and it wasn't caught, he wasn't caught because of the irregularity of people that bring guns on the plane. Attention to focus isn't placed on them (looking for a gun) instead they are looking for items they see frequently like lotion bottles that are the wrong size. So its safe to say that people will build unconscious mental models of how often an event will occur.
Sustained attention can only last about ten minutes and thats only if you are interest in the topic being presented and it is being presented by a good presented. Because of this you should keep online tutorials under seven minutes in length, and break up lectures every ten minutes.
People can't actually multitask. We can switch back and forth on a task quickly which makes it seem like we are multi tasking, but it is physically impossible to think about two things at once. The only exception to this is something that we do so much that it is second nature an example would be walking and talking. If you are trying to multi tasks you can't give your full attention to one thing so that leaves room for making mistakes.
For people to pay attention to something, they must first perceive it this can happen by sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
No comments:
Post a Comment