Designing Interfaces that Encourage a More Effortful Cognitive Strategy

Abstract

Typically, interface design attempts to minimize cognitive load by providing immediately accessible task-relevant information. However, this may have the unintended consequence of encouraging display-based strategies that minimize the degree of cognitive processing; a claim made by the soft constraints hypothesis (Gray, Sims, Fu, & Schoelles, 2006). Increasing information access cost (IAC) induces a more memory-based strategy, and has been shown to improve performance following interruption in a visuospatial copying task (Morgan, Patrick, Waldron, King, & Patrick, 2009). An experiment investigates whether the positive effect of increased IAC on interrupted performance extends to a problem solving task. A mouse movement and time delay to access information provoked a strategy that facilitated resumption and continuation of problem solving from memory, improved problem solving efficiency, and added no extra time cost to problem completion. The findings highlight the value of considering design solutions in light of the importance of different task performance criteria.

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