Responding to cognitive overload: Co-adaptation between users and technology

This study examines how the first users of the X-Window system, the administrative staff at MIT's Project Athena, coped with this complex new technology. By examining their use of customization files over a period of six months, we were able to track how they responded to both organizational and technological changes. We found clear evidence of co-adaptation: individuals both adapted to the new technology, influenced by its design, implementation and use within the local work environment, and they adapted it for their own purposes, reinterpreting it in ways unanticipated by the technology’s designers. This study provides evidence that users' co-adaptation of technology is a useful mechanism for addressing cognitive overload. It also suggests how taking co-adaptation into account when designing new technology can help users manage the growing complexity of their work environments and the corresponding increase in cognitive overload.