Cognitive Toolkit

“A range of simple and symbolic shapes combined with words can be used to express relationships between ideas or components.”

Elizabeth Sanders & Pieter Jan Strappers. Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design. Ch. 3: How It Works: Generative Tools and Techniques. 65-95.

Definition

A cognitive toolkit is a method designed to evaluate how people think about something.

Context

Co-design

Procedure

1. Decide what knowledge is being evaluated and why it needs to be understood.

2. Create an approach that will allow people to express how they think about the subject. There’s no one correct way to do this. It can involve words, shapes, patterns, pictures, and more, but do make it open-ended.

3. Record responses during the activity and dig deeper into anything that seems interesting. The toolkit is not a rigid method, but rather a way to trigger responses and stories.

Use Case

I used a cognitive toolkit in conjunction with other toolkit methods. The goal was to evaluate how well people understood recycling symbols, important facts about garbage, and how people perceived waste bin colors. To do this, I designed the toolkit in the form of a quiz with questions written on one side of several notecards.

The quiz cards were an effective way of interacting with our participants. By framing the cognitive toolkit as a quiz, participants were more involved and motivated by the challenge. What’s interesting is that some of them really wanted to know what answers other people gave. They were just as curious as us!

Another dynamic to this approach that I find particularly powerful is the participants’ perspectives. Most people said they liked this method because they learned something. For instance, one girl had no idea what the recycling symbols meant because she had never noticed them before. Not only was my team and I learning what knowledge people had about the topic, but our participants were learning something as well! I think research is often a one way street, with participants offering a lot without getting much in return. People should be treated more than data points, and instead should be treated as equals in the design process. With this method, participants are rewarded for volunteering because they get to benefit from learning new things.

Data Analysis

The responses from cognitive toolkits can lead to useful insights. Pay attention to any commonalities or differences between individual ways of thinking. During the activity, it’s imperative to ask why someone thinks a certain way. Connections or gaps in logic can be drawn based on the reasons people give for their answers. This is where new designs can intervene.