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In the enterprise context the paradox of the active user can be addressed by guiding the users as they interact with processes or systems giving them what they need when they need it, rather than relying on manuals, e-learnings, or introductory trainings.

Dual-task interference

Dual-task interference is a phenomenon in which people ignore alerts, announcements, and other messaging that pop up or get in the way of a person’s current task. The “dual” part of dual-task interference speaks to the idea of someone needing to deal with two things at once.

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The researchers found that displaying security messages during natural pauses, such as while the user was waiting for a video to process, reduced how many participants disregarded the messages by as much as 50%.

Front-loading

Front-loading is when all the instructions and steps for learning a new concept are presented at the start of a learning experience. In business, a company might front-load all possible agreement terms into a contract to avoid disputes down the road. This technique can be beneficial in business, but it doesn’t help people learn new things, like systems or processes.

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This can also be applied in system or process training by guiding through each step rather than explaining or training a process in full before an employee goes through it the first time. Think for example an employee being trained on how to process the application for a home owners' insurance. The employee could be trained on the entire process end-to-end before doing it, e.g., register new customer (CRM), input pricing parameters (size, contents, etc.), adjust for special hazzard grades, etc. and be asked to do it themselves after the training. If they haven’t already forgotten how to do step one, they’ll for sure start struggling at step two or three and need to refer to their notes. Instead, they could be guided through step by step, I.e., they get instructions how to register a new customer and do it, then they get instructions how to input the pricing parameters and do it, and so on.

Three Pitfalls and lessons from game design

• The paradox of the active user
  Avoid by guiding and highlighting the defaults

• Dual-task interferenceAvoid interference
  Avoid by providing information before or after an activity, rather than in the middle of an activity, e.g., a hint after an activity has been completed how it could be handled more efficiently the next time. For example, a pop-up that your PC received a critical update and needs to restart in the middle of the employee writing an email, will likely be ignored. If it pops up as the employee clicks send, they might consider doing the restart right away.

• Front-Loading
  Avoid by breaking down new features

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• into three parts: Trigger - Action - Follow up