White-Hat Attention Jacking for Accessibility, Fun and Profit

GOTO Amsterdam 2022

Attention: we don’t have a lot of it, and it’s hard to control. Things are even worse for those of us with cognitive problems, those who are getting older, who are stressed … or who just didn’t sleep well last night. When we build software, or make things for web, these are the users who need most help. And «they» are very often us!

In this session, we’ll explore some common patterns of information overload and misdirection, and what's really going on there from a psychology perspective. We’ll look at how time and space affect people’s ability to perceive information, and how to use this to create better user experiences. We’ll also talk about how to avoid disadvantaging vulnerable groups when we build things.

This session is suitable for anyone, but will be especially useful for front-end developers and those creating content. It’s also a good introduction to (some) accessibility issues.