Cognitive Aspects in Design

Please answer the following short essay questions. These are based primarily on the assigned reading material – your answers may be paraphrased (cite the source) and cited external sources may be used. Your examples should not be the textbook examples – either find an example (cite the external source) or describe an original example from your own head.

1.) What aspects of presentation on a graphical display assist in attention and perception? What are the design implications of choices for icons, text color and size, open space, grouping, etc.

2.) Explain and share web page examples to support your explanation. Explain what the Gulf of Execution means? What techniques on the design end can be used to bridge the gap?

3.) Describe the key characteristics of short-term memory. How might these characteristics conflict with other requirements in a system design? Provide an example and suggest an improvement.

4.) Describe the Distributed Cognition model. Provide an example.

5.) What is External Cognition? Explain how this is useful. Provide an example.