Psychology of Web development

1. Cognitive Psychology Impact
Impact of Cognitive Psychology on Human-Computer Interaction
Larry A. Ball
COMP325-V1WW
Professor Atekoja
January 28, 2012
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2. Cognitive Psychology Impact
Abstract
Cognitive psychology is the study of how human problem solving, memory, and perception is
linked to internal mental states and physiological processes. Human-Computer Interaction is the
study and design of the interaction between humans and computers. This paper presents a
discussion of the impact of cognitive psychology on the field of Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI). Three journal articles will be reviewed that apply cognitive psychology in order to study
HCI. The first deals with using two modes of information presentation compared to textual
information only. The second article explores the objective and subjective effects of visual
complexity in web documents. Finally, the impact of web page symmetry on perceived aesthetics
is the topic of the last article reviewed.
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3. Cognitive Psychology Impact
Impact of Cognitive Psychology on Human-Computer Interaction
Dual-Modal Presentation of Text
Presentation of information via text only is inappropriate in situations where the
individual has cognitive impairment of reading and comprehension, the individual is using a
mobile device, or the individual is driving an automobile with a screen in the dash – small screen
scenarios (Shuang, Xiaowen, Brzezinski & Chan, 2008). In such cases presentation of
information via a multimodal interface (across multiple senses) may provide a solution. The
authors go one to quote Eimer “… research in cognitive psychology shows that visual and
auditory perceptual processing is closely linked” (p. 776). The objectives of the study were two-
fold:
(a) to develop a dual-mode interface that improves the effectiveness of mental integration
of information from different modalities, and
(b) to test its effectiveness by comparing the new interface with the commonly used
textual display (p. 777).
However, the objectives are clouded by statements referring to small screens such as
“..dual-modal presentation of textual information that describes network relationships for small
screens” and “Results of this study will help to address the usability problems associated with
small-screen computers and the mobile information access via handheld devices”, which are not
even tested in the study. In my opinion this is one flaw in the study, they study the effects of a
visual interface with diagrams and pictures along with audio statements of questions on a normal
PC monitor it is assumed, since nothing is stated to the contrary.
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4. Cognitive Psychology Impact
The authors go on to discuss the various human attention models, stressing again the
influence of cognitive psychology and its interest in complex multitasking across different
sensory channels. Some research has shown decreased performance of tasks when two or more
are performed at the same time. It is pointed out that there exists immense literature showing
humans are better at dividing their mental resources across senses – especially visual and
auditory, than information delivered via one or the other sense. They proceed to conduct a
literature review with strong evidence that “processing spatial and verbal information
concurrently does not cause competition of cognitive resources” (p. 778) and that “…
multimedia presentation can improve learners’ engagement without increasing their cognitive
load…” (p. 779). A brief paragraph is devoted to the problems (at the time of the study) with
mobile computing power and the lack of research and development of multimodal interfaces for
mobile devices. Another discussion of the proposed memory model the study is based on
strongly links it to cognitive psychology research methodologies. The methodology of the study
would be to convert the “network relationships” in the text to diagrams and present the rest of the
text with audio.
The study itself used sample questions from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
presented on a web site developed by the authors. Thirty subjects were selected from a Midwest
university in the United States and consisted of alumni, faculty, staff, as well as graduate and
undergraduate students. Two groups consisting of randomly assigned subjects (factoring in
balance in gender and native language) were the textual display (T-mode) group and the
“graphics + voice” display (GV-mode) group – “only the internal relationship and related entities
were converted to graphics” (p. 785). The hypotheses asserted are as follows:
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1) The dual-modal presentation of network relationships will result in superior
comprehension performance as compared to pure textual display
2) The perceived ease of use of the dual-modal presentation of network relationships will
be greater than that of pure textual display
3) The perceived usefulness of the dual-modal presentation of network relationships will
be greater than that of pure textual display (p. 781).
The study’s methodology was for both groups to take the pretest in textual format, and
then a second test was given in T-mode and GV-mode to the respective groups. The interface
format was an HTML frame document, with an upper frame containing the problem description,
and the lower frame listing the questions, so that the mode of information transmission was
visible during the problem solving process. The average number of correct answers for the GV-
mode group increased 143%. Users’ perceptions of ease of use and usefulness were significantly
higher among the GV-mode group as well. The authors conclude with the suggestion that this
type of dual mode information delivery might serve useful on mobile devices, with the limiting
and problematic factor of screen size.
Symmetry and aesthetics in website design
Tuch, Bargas-Avila & Opwis looked in depth at the effect of symmetry on aesthetics and
surprisingly found some very different results between genders (2010). They expected that
vertically symmetrically designed webpages would have a higher aesthetic perception. 60
participants mainly composed of undergraduate psychology students from the University of
Basel in Switzerland were distributed among two groups with 15 of each gender in each group
(p. 1833). 60 web pages were selected and then filtered based on the following criteria:
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6. Cognitive Psychology Impact
• content must be business, news, or science related
• content written in German or English
• content unfamiliar to Swiss students
• easy to manipulate symmetry using the tool Adobe Photoshop CS3
40 total screenshots, 20 symmetrical and 20 asymmetrical were shown in random order,
once to get a initial rating on beauty, and then again but this time rated on seven items – three
classical, three expressive, and one manipulation. Various rating systems were used to measure
symmetry and aesthetic perception in both the “classical and expressive dimension” (p. 1833).
There was no relationship between gender and vertical symmetry ratings found, but the authors
did observe that
… asymmetrically designed websites were considered less beautiful and achieved lower
scores on the classical and expressive dimensions … These results suggest that prior
findings on symmetry from experimental psychology are also highly relevant for real
websites. Moreover, the study indicates that the effect only occurs among male
participants (p. 1835).
A limitation of the study is noted that there was no interaction with the website during the
study, only screenshots and visual impressions were formed.
Visual complexity of websites
Tuch, Bargas-Avila, Opwis & Wilhelm conducted an in depth study of the effects on
users’ experience, physiology, and memory (2009). The methodology of the study is based on
much research over the past decade in the overlap of psychophysiology and HCI – to measure
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emotional response. Visual complexity was measured by how much a JPEG of the screenshot
source would compress in bytes. The authors state a correlation exists, but in my opinion this
does not prove causation. Static screenshots and lack of interactivity really limit the findings of
this study to impressions of static websites, while modern websites use JavaScript and CSS3
animations for beautiful, intuitive interactivity for the visitor.
Start pages with low visual complexity were rated as more pleasurable and less arousing.
Furthermore, participants performed better on search and recognition tasks on start pages
with low visual complexity. These results suggest that relatively simple start pages are
not only more favorable to users but that they are also better remembered (recognized)
than more complex ones. Moreover, the study indicates that compressed file size (e.g.
JPEG) is an easy way of obtaining an index for assessing visual complexity and provides
a good predictor for users’ first impressions of a website (p. 712).
Conclusion
The three studies presented research that is useful to keep in mind when designing
websites. While only one of the studies provided any interactivity, the research focused on the
cognitive processing and more effective results from dual sensory interfaces. This was the most
exciting and strongest link to cognitive psychology as the methodology of the experiment was
influenced by that field. The last study reinforces my opinion that clean, minimalistic-tending
interface and layouts in web design combined with front-end web development to add
interactivity and reveal more specific content via JavaScript is a modern approach to web
development.
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References
Shuang, X., Xiaowen, F., Brzezinski, J., & Chan, S. (2008). Development of a Dual-Modal
Presentation of Texts for Small Screens. International Journal Of Human-Computer
Interaction, 24(8), 776-793. doi:10.1080/10447310802537566
Tuch, A. N., Bargas-Avila, J. A., & Opwis, K. (2010). Symmetry and aesthetics in website
design: It’s a man’s business. Computers In Human Behavior, 26(6), 1831-1837.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.016
Tuch, A. N., Bargas-Avila, J. A., Opwis, K., & Wilhelm, F. H. (2009). Visual complexity of
websites: Effects on users’ experience, physiology, performance, and memory.
International Journal Of Human-Computer Studies, 67(9), 703-715.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.04.002
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