ABSTRACT
Products should account for use in distracting environments and minimize distracting user interface elements. Dealing with distractions can be considered a form of “multi-tasking,” which, despite what the name implies, is typically the act of switching attention between tasks, rather than attending to many things simultaneously. When discussing the consequences of distraction, accidents arising from distracted driving are arguably the “elephant in the room”. Distracted driving has been widely chronicled as a growing cause of automobile accidents. Including potential distractions in usability testing is an invaluable way to test a device’s ability to accommodate users in challenging environments. For example, including a phone call during a task with a home-use medical device can be a good technique because it: redirects auditory, verbal, and visual attention, and pulls the test participant away from the original task for at least several seconds.
