Designing for Digital Attention

Design technology-rich lessons that reduce distraction, unnecessary switching and notification noise while preserving the digital affordances that genuinely support learning.

• Treat attention as an environment — Look beyond individual self-control to the cues, defaults and demands built into technology-rich lessons.
• Reduce unnecessary switching — Distinguish productive changes in thinking from costly changes in digital context.
• Design the notification and tab environment — Use defaults and routines to reduce competing cues before asking learners to self-regulate them.
• Create clear screen routines — Use predictable moments for screens up, screens down and purposeful transition between digital and social learning.
• Design an attention-friendly digital lesson — Combine environment, workflow, routines and learner agency into a practical classroom design.