Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough is a usability evaluation method used to assess the effectiveness of product interfaces from the perspective of first-time users. This process involves usability experts who simulate the experience of a new user, engaging with the product through exploration and experimentation. The primary goal is to determine how easily a user can learn to use the product's features, particularly when they have little prior knowledge.
Cognitive walkthroughs focus on four main questions: whether the user will attempt to achieve the correct outcome, if they can notice the best way to achieve their goal, whether they can identify the desired option when needed, and if they understand the feedback provided by the interface. By answering these questions, evaluators can create narratives that illustrate a hypothetical user's interaction with the interface, highlighting potential areas for improvement.
This evaluation method is applicable across various domains, including home appliances, software applications, public kiosks, medical devices, gaming, and educational tools. Ultimately, cognitive walkthroughs are a valuable tool in user experience (UX) design, helping creators enhance product accessibility and usability.
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Subject Terms
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough is a process used to evaluate the usability of various products. During product design, a usability expert tests a new product from the perspective of an average first-time user, attempting to learn to use the product through exploration and experimentation.
Uses and Importance
Businesses and other organizations strive to create user interfaces (such as visual displays, function buttons, and option menus) that allow new users to interact easily with products and learn how to use product features. To test the usability of these interfaces, experts may conduct cognitive walkthroughs by approaching new product interfaces from the perspective of a new user who has little existing information about the product.
The experts use a list of questions and a process of investigation to test whether the interface could be easily grasped and used solely through exploration and experimentation. As they work, the experts create a narrative showing how the hypothetical user would likely react to different features in the interface and whether they would ultimately be successful in learning to use the product.
Main Criteria
Most cognitive walkthroughs revolve around four main questions. At each stage, the evaluator considers and answers these questions to determine the effectiveness of the user interface. The first question is whether the user will try to achieve the correct effect. For example, a user who wants to save a television show to watch later should understand that they should use a "record" option rather than a wide range of unrelated choices.
The second question concerns whether the user can notice the best way to achieve their goal on the particular interface. In the example, can the user easily access a "record" option when they want to record a show? The third question asks whether the user can correctly identify the desired option when it is needed. For instance, a "record" option should be clearly labeled or designated with an understandable icon to avoid user confusion.
The fourth question is whether a user understands feedback received from the interface. If the user selects the correct "record" option, does the interface make it clear that the product will record the selected show? If the user selects an incorrect option, does the interface make it easy to correct the error and locate the proper option?
Using these criteria, evaluators perform cognitive walkthroughs on many kinds of interfaces and create basic narratives of hypothetical first-time users' first experiences with the interface. This information helps product creators find ways to improve interfaces and make them more easily accessible to all users. Cognitive walkthroughs are used for many applications, including home appliances; software applications; public interfaces like ticket machines; medical devices; gaming; and education projects, like interactive whiteboards. User experience (UX) design employs cognitive walkthroughs to enhance a product or service for a user.
Bibliography
"Cognitive Walkthrough." Usability Body of Knowledge, www.usabilitybok.org/cognitive-walkthrough. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Craiger, Philip. "Cognitive Walkthrough: Bare Bones & Quickie Example." School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University, web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~burnett/CS589HCI/CognitiveWalkBareBones.html. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Flaherty, Kim. "Evaluate Interface Learnability with Cognitive Walkthroughs." Nielsen Norman Group, 13 Feb. 2022, www.nngroup.com/articles/cognitive-walkthroughs. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
"How to Conduct a Cognitive Walkthrough." Interaction Design Foundation, 2021, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/how-to-conduct-a-cognitive-walkthrough?srsltid=AfmBOoowukBa8SVJqyMQ5M0‗r7Vh7Cqc6s5WidjoQ4‗JLPAoNz6c‗VcV. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Rieman, John, et al. "Usability Evaluation with the Cognitive Walkthrough." CHI '95 Proceedings, SIGCHI, doi.org/10.1145/223355.22373. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.