Investigating How Design of a Mobile Application Affects Cognitive Load : UI Development of a Mobile Application for the Volvo Group IT

Sammanfattning: Nowadays when most people are used to smartphones the Volvo Group IT would like to look into the use of mobile devices in the production and design an application which can be used in the painting process at the Umeå plant. When learning a new system, whether it is on a computer or a mobile platform, it is crucial for the users’ performance to develop the system in accordance with their needs and wishes. One factor that can affect the performance negatively is if the users experience a high amount of cognitive load while using the system. This paper, therefore, investigates which design choices in a mobile application minimise cognitive load. The study is a single-case study where five different interview sessions and one test to measure cognitive load have been conducted. The sample size in the cognitive load test consisted of 7 participants, where 2 of them were women and the rest were men. The participants were instructed to perform seven different tasks on the prototype while their response times were measured. After each completed task the participants had to answer a mental effort rating. When all tasks had been performed, the participants was asked to rate the difficulty of each task. Each test was recorded using Microsoft Teams and qualitatively analysed. The results showed that three types of design choices used led to a low amount of cognitive load; (1) the use of the right type of icons, (2) the use of colour contrast and edges and (3) preservations of the users’ familiar and prior work experiences.