The principles of attention stress is a
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...
design theory to measure the amount of attention that is required to perform certain tasks in a web application. Antradar Software develops it in an attempt to benchmark the ease of use of open source CMS products and to monitor the trend of UI designs.
The attention stress theory is based on many psychological observations, of which the two most important ones are:
* attention shift
* selection threshold
Attention shift addresses the issue of "getting lost", or the experience of a "broken flow". It is usually measured by the number of page refreshes or the amount of
hand–eye coordination required to complete a task. According to attention shift, new pages cause more stress than pop-ups, and pop-ups are more "expensive" than things like
inline-editing.
Selection threshold deals with the matter of "being overwhelmed". It is observed that when the users are presented with more than 4 choices at a time, their decisions tend to base on random guess instead of reasoning. This is especially true with users who suffer minor
dyslexic
Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...
symptoms. A well-known solution to this problem is the "personal menu" in Microsoft Office products, where rarely used menu items are hidden from the users.
Although the emergence of
AJAX
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...
provides many ways to reduce attention shift, the paradox between attention shift and selection threshold still cannot be resolved. Because of the nature of some application logic, the overall attention stress bears a lower bound. This limit is termed "UI capacity" in the principles of attention stress.
See also
*
Attention management
Attention management refers to models and tools for supporting the management of attention at the individual or at the collective level (cf. attention economy), and at the short-term (quasi real time) or at a longer term (over periods of weeks or m ...
*
Attentive user interface Attentive user interfaces (AUI) are user interfaces that manage the user's attention. For instance, an AUI can manage notifications, deciding when to interrupt the user, the kind of warnings, and the level of detail of the messages presented to the ...
*
Cognitive load
In cognitive psychology, cognitive load is the effort being used in the working memory. According to work conducted in the field of instructional design and pedagogy, broadly, there are three types of cognitive load:
* ''Intrinsic'' cognitive load ...
*
Ego depletion
Ego depletion is the idea that self-control or willpower draws upon conscious mental resources that can be taxed to exhaustion when in constant use with no reprieve (with the word "ego" used in the psychoanalytic sense rather than the colloquial ...
*
Fatigue
Fatigue is a state of tiredness (which is not sleepiness), exhaustion or loss of energy. It is a signs and symptoms, symptom of any of various diseases; it is not a disease in itself.
Fatigue (in the medical sense) is sometimes associated wit ...
*
Keyboard warrior
References
User interfaces
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