The increasing cognitive demands of digital systems highlight the need for structured ways to assess attention-aware design. In collaboration with the Calm Technology Institute, a framework has been developed that examines human-computer attention relationships across six dimensions: attentional load, peripheral awareness, system reliability, light, sound, and material interaction.
This presentation will cover the development and overview of an 81-point assessment framework that provides specific criteria for evaluating how technological products and services impact human attention. This builds on existing usability evaluation approaches by considering both immediate cognitive demands and background processing requirements. The framework helps analyze how technologies distribute attention demands between focused and peripheral awareness.
By treating attention as a limited resource, the framework proposes metrics for assessing how technical systems affect cognitive load. These criteria provide concrete checkpoints for evaluating design choices that either support or burden human attention.
Early applications of this assessment system have helped identify design elements that influence cognitive demands. These initial findings suggest structured evaluation of attention impacts could support development of more attention-respectful technical systems.
