“continuous partial attention n. A state in which most of one’s attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks just in case something more important or interesting comes up. Also: CPA.”

Continuous partial attention is one of the side effects of mobile networked computing; it’s parasitic on our desires to feel connected to other people.

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Continuous partial attention is an always on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that creates an artificial sense of crisis. We are always in high alert. We reach to keep a top priority in focus, while, at the same time, scanning the periphery to see if we are missing other opportunities, and if we are, our very fickle attention shifts focus. What’s ringing? Who is it? How many emails? What’s on my list? What time is it in Beijing?

“Continuous partial attention and multi-tasking are two different attention strategies, motivated by different impulses. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. Each activity has the same priority – we eat lunch AND file papers. We stir the soup AND talk on the phone…We multi-task to CREATE more opportunity for ourselves -time to DO more and time to RELAX more.

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The Feng-GUI heatmap service is an automatic alternative to eye-tracking. Unlike eye-tracking or click-based heatmaps, Feng-GUI creates heatmaps based on an algorithm that predicts what a real human would be most likely to look at.

Read their explanation on how accurate their algorithms are….

via kingsley

The human mind has 3 kinds of processors
- Sensorial/ Perceptual : Ears & Eyes : These store visual and auditory data.
- Motor : Fingers & Hands
- Cognitive :

There are basically 3 kinds of memories:
Sensory memory, Working memory (short term) and Long term memoryand there is an additional one called ” Haptic” ( touch)

The human mind moves data from sensory memory to working memory and then to long term memory

Example: If you were to look at Yahoo Mail interface …your attention will be primarily on the ‘first mail’ in the inbox slot. (Short Term Memory)

Next, your attention will be on “the left nav” containing the folders list etc., and the “top nav” containing buttons like delete, reply etc. You might not be able to exactly recall the links in the exact order, but then, you do remember some of it. (Long Term Memory)

You also don’t remember “730×90 banners” which is right on top and blinking at you.
You only think about it when you see it. (Working Memory) and forget all about it soon.
And the next time you log it, you mentally block it. This is the basic concept behind “Banner Blindness”.

These huge blinking banners do what is called an “Attention Shift”
Attention shift can be Positive and Negative. When a stimulus shifts the user’s attention from what is important to him, disharmony in interaction happens. This affects performance. No wonder Google’s text only banners are so cool!
In case of alarm systems, both the visual and auditory stimuli shift the user’s attention to what is REALLY important to him.