What is Attention-Driven Design (ADD)

Attention-driven design is the set of skills, definitions, practical strategies, and theoretical frameworks that are meant to keep learners’ attention as a key part of a successful project from beginning to end. When using ADD, capturing attention is a collaborative process that requires an analysis of the learners’ goals, team collaboration, understanding of the learning environment, and communication with stakeholders. These are all part of capturing attention.

Three Stage Foundation of ADD

Define Attention

How ADD Defines Attention

There are two things a learner must understand as part of an attention-driven process can start, Environment and Landscape. In other words, Pathway(Context or mindset) and Pathway (The ecosystem in which they are learning or a map of the area where learning will take place.)

As the figure above shows, ADD defines attention as the sum of defined goals and the working context. The working context is the environment in which the instruction will take place. For example, the goal of a particular project is to provide general instructions on how to operate a sizeable industrial packing machine. The context may be that the device is too large to fit in the room where learning occurs. Therefore, the cognitive and practical strategies of the instructor would be centered on the closest technology or concept that can provide the learners with an experience that closely resembles the realities of working with the machine itself. In the above scenario, the working context is a learning environment that requires a device that is too large to exist where learning will take place. The defined goal is to get the learners as close to operating and understanding the machine as possible. Combining the defined goal and the context provides the instructor or instructional designer with the definition of attention in this context.

Attention in this scenario allows the instructor the option to capture the learners’ attention by incorporating tools like virtual reality, augmented reality, computer games, miniature robotics, or a field trip; or provide the learners with a video tour of the machine as a tool to capture their attention. In essence, the goal (i.e., the cognitive and practical strategies of the instructor) and context (i.e., the learning environment is too small to hold the actual device) determined the kinds of tools the designer needed to get the learners’ attention.

Define Attention (based on knowing the learners)

Understanding the learners’ motivations, goals, and learning environment are critical to creating an effective attention-driven design. Basically, learn how they will learn and what their motivations are.

Identify Attentional Methods & Tools (considering stage 1 and 2)

The key to an attention-driven design is consistency, predictability, and reliability for online, in-person, or hybrid classes

an account of the technology that will be used in the design, an understanding of the learners on a physical and mental level, the effect on the learners of the technology or media used in the design, and a sense of where the learners are going after the course is complete (e.g., moving on to another class, job, business).

How to Decide on the Technologies to Use

The decision-making process when using the attention-driven design is a procedure that starts by assessing how the learner or end-user may respond to the imagery or gadget used in the design.