🧐 Selective Attention:
Focus on certain stimuli while ignoring others.
This is the process of focusing on a particular object (or 'thing') in the environment for a certain period of time.
i.e., ignoring features of a product that you're not interested in, despite them being prominent on the screen.
✅Attention & interest
By design, selective attention is used to draw the user's attention to a particular thing.
✅Complexity & understanding
Often by highlighting a specific thing (e.g., feature, error, option), you can add context, and educate the user.
Here are a few examples of how you could utilise selective attention (the complete list would be huge):
Having a simplified header during sign-up (reduces the number of links / distractions on screen).
Tooltips, modals and pop-ups.
Focusing on a specific field when the page loads (i.e., "look here").
Specific email campaigns to teach the user about a specific feature.