Cognitive Strategy Prompting

A design technique that provides cues or prompts within an interface to help users employ effective cognitive strategies for completing tasks, particularly benefiting users experiencing age-related cognitive decline or cognitive disabilities. Examples include framing tasks using goal metaphors (describing what users want to accomplish rather than which application to open), using vernacular language instead of technical terminology, providing redundant cues through both icons and text labels, and structuring choices as questions rather than abstract menu items. Research has shown that verbal memory tends to persist better than visual memory in older adults, so prompts that encourage users to think about tasks verbally (e.g., "What would you like to do?") can improve recall and task completion compared to purely icon-based interfaces.