User Experience and Cognitive Engineering » business analysis

What is Distributed Cognition?

Francois Aubin — Thu, 17 May 2007 05:58:38 +0000

Distributed cognition proposes that human knowledge and cognition are not confined to the individual. Instead, they are distributed by placing memories, facts, or knowledge on the objects, individuals, and tools in our environment.

Distributed cognition puts emphasis on the individual and his environment. In essence, when observing a user in real work setting, we take into account how knowledge is distributed among other users, tools, documents, and information systems.

Having the right information on time.

Francois Aubin — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:18:18 +0000

The primary ingredient for making right decisions is having the right information on time. Information is often gathered through meetings, interviews, focus group or surveys. Unfortunately, these techniques do not always provide all the insight and facts. While meetings, focus groups, interviews or surveys might provide a good insight, there are many undiscovered operations that are difficult to recall and express because they are instinctive.

a. It is difficult for people to verbally describe visual-spatial operations. For example, five people witnessing a car accident will tell five different stories

b. It is harder, if not almost impossible, for someone to recall in detail an experience out of context

Our experience has show in more than 100 projects, that these operations are often critical for understanding the business

Doing the right thing – The Cognitive Engineering Approach

The application of the Cognitive Approach helps an organization to learn at a faster pace:

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into rapid action, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” Jack Welch

What is Cognitive Engineering

Francois Aubin — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:39:20 +0000

Cognitive Engineering also called Cognitive Ergonomics comes from Industrial engineering. It is an Integration of Engineering, and Cognitive Ergonomics. From the Greek words “ergon” (work) and “nomos” (science of), “Ergonomics” means the study of humans at work.

Cognitive Engineering places particular emphasis on the analysis of cognitive processes – e.g., diagnosis, decision making and planning It aim to enhance performance of cognitive tasks by means of several interventions, including:

user-centered design of human-machine interaction and human-computer interaction (HCI);
design of information technology systems that support cognitive tasks (e.g., cognitive artifacts);
development of training programs;
work redesign to manage cognitive workload and increase human reliability

Like a medical scanner that provides a clear view of the inside of the human body, the cognitive approach provides and inside view of the business. Why:The Cognitive approach permits to gather information and understand operation up to the thinking processes level. It allows a deeper understanding of the business problems or needs. This thorough understating will be then translated into better decisions. Overall, the Cognitive approach comprises the rigorous practice of gathering information, human information processing, analysis, business modeling, and simulation.

Gathering information

Instead of relying only on meetings, surveys or internal documentation; information is gathered in the field with “thinking out loud” techniques while people are performing their tasks. This ensures a deeper understanding of the current situation. Even if a process is totally changed, gathering information with the cognitive approach exceeds the risks of not doing so.

Information processing

To understand the thinking process, goals and knowledge, a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is performed. Cognitive goals, sub-goals and methods are then described hierarchically. Methods are extracted with “how” questions, and goals are extracted with “why” questions. At the end of the process, management will have a deep understanding of the operations, problems, and strategies. This ensures an effective way to optimize any process. Cognitive task analysis serves also as input for defining the requirements of an information system.

Process Modeling

The business is modeled as a hierarchy of systems and processes. The highest level is the mission, followed by generic functions, specific functions and ultimately, at the most detailed level, the structural elements. The gathering techniques along with the cognitive task analysis ensure that the business model will be grounded with reality. This provides a complete and exact picture of the operation to management.

Simulation

Before executing a plan, each risk is analyzed and addressed by simulation and calculation. For example, in information technology (IT), user acceptance is often the prime risk. Simulating the user interface prior to writing any line of code ensures that the user and the business needs are first met.

The application of the Cognitive Approach helps an organization to learn at a faster pace: “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into rapid action, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” Jack Welch

Cognitive Engineering Provide the Right Information

Francois Aubin — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 02:09:28 +0000

The primary ingredient for making right decisions is having the right information “There is nothing worse than doing the wrong thing well” (Peter Drucker). Typically analyst and or managers provide information to executive. Information is often gathered through meetings, interviews, focus group or surveys. Unfortunately, these techniques do not always provide all the insight and facts.

For example, a line manager of a money management company complained the back office was overloaded and needed more employees. After having studied their operations with the cognitive approach, it was discovered that 50% of the workload in the back office was due to subtle, but preventable human errors at the front offices. Many of these errors were not detected with traditional mean of observations. Instead of hiring more employees as requested originally by the line manager, executives decided to follow our recommendation and invest to prevent these errors. The result was, a reduction of 30% of the number of employees at the back office, and an increase in the quality of the service.

In other example, the statistics of an online operation were showing low usage of the service, while surveys were indicating full client satisfaction. Observation and analysis of the user interaction with the cognitive approach revealed that the users were in fact hesitating and lack understanding about the service provided. Instead of investing only in marketing campaign to increase the number of costumers, the executive decided to follow our recommendations and allocate a portion of the investment to fix the user interface design. It resulted in a 400% increase of completion rate. While meetings, focus groups, interviews or surveys might provide insight, there is many under-covered operation that are difficult to recall and express because they are instinctive. a. It is difficult for people to verbally describe visual-spatial operations. For example, five people witnessing a car accident will tell five different stories b. It is harder, almost impossible, for someone to recall, in detail and experience out of context Our experience has show over more than 100 projects that these operations are often critical for understanding the business

Doing the right thing – The Cognitive Engineering Approach

The Cognitive Approach comes from Industrial engineering. It is an Integration of Engineering, and Cognitive Ergonomics. From the Greek words “ergon” (work) and “nomos” (science of), “Ergonomics” means the study of humans at work. Like a medical scanner that provides a clear view of the inside of the human body, the cognitive approach provides and inside view of the business. Why:The Cognitive approach permits to gather information and understand operation up to the thinking processes level. It allows a deeper understanding of the business problems or needs. This thorough understating will be then translated into better decision. Overall, the Cognitive approach comprises rigorous practice of gathering information, human information processing, analysis, business modeling, and simulation.