Designing with the User in Mind a Cognitive Category Based Design Methodology

Abstract

To design products and experiences that are highly intuitive and resonate with their target users the designer must have an accurate understanding of those users ‘mental models’. New research in cognitive science, in particular in the area of cognitive category theory, provides clues how to better elicit and apply mental models in design. The resultant outcome is guaranteed to be more natural and understandable to its users. In this paper we will briefly review the cognitive science research and describe our resultant empirically grounded concept and definition of a ‘mental model’. We then explain how we use the mental model and related design principles to build intuitive designs.