Unit 5: How People Focus Their Attention

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.

Chapter 5: How People Focus Their Attention

Selective attention causes viewers to focus on specific attributes versus others. Bold type, for example, can break the attention of repetition and create a new line of focus. This is especially key to publication design, web design, and, really, design in general.

Selective attention in design: http://www.creativebloq.com/art/art-negative-space-8133765

Repetition and practice in a skill causes the user to not require conscious attention. Music is an excellent example of this. Practice may not make perfect, but rather, create a subconscious attention toward that subject.

Example of repetition improving a skill: https://www.behance.net/gallery/15538619/Sketchbook-March-2014

Frequency and the amount of times you see something can affect ones attention. When encountering repetition with what one sees, one can expect to see more, and be oblivious to something new.

The reading goes on to say that sustained attention lasts about ten minutes. I'm curious to know if this time is accurate the majority of the time. If so, I automatically start to question the length of panel presentation. How long will I actually hold someones attention during panel? How can I make it more interesting to sustain the attention of the viewers?

A "salient cue" is a term that defines an over-arching attribute to an object or thing. These cues are significant when considering the other details that people miss about an object. I find this to occur frequently in games. Parts of what makes them function become unnoticed by the average viewer and they become immersed in its design and function.

A list of what grabs the most attention:

1. Anything that moves
2. Pictures of human faces
3. Pictures of food, sex, or danger
4. Stories
5. Loud noises

Holding viewer attention for web: http://conversionxl.com/how-to-grab-and-hold-attention/

The reading continues to cover possibly the most important aspect to the chapter. The theory is that our brains are separated into three parts, the new brain, the mid brain, and the old brain. The new brain is the logical brain that we know, the mid brain is the emotional processing brain, and the old brain is essential to our survival. The old brain asks questions like: Can I eat it? Can I have sex with it? Will it kill me?