We’re proud to announce the launch of a new product we’ve been putting together. It’s called ’cognitive lode’, or ’coglode’ for short.

We’re also happy to announce that it came into being through our ribotDays innovation process, where exciting new internal ideas and concepts are being created each month.

Cognitive lode is a completely free resource that collates the latest research on behavioural economics, cognition and consumer psychology, and brings it to you in easy-to-understand, digestible and, most importantly, fun little packages that we call ‘gems’.

We’ll be adding more gems each week and, for those who want to stay up to date, we’ll send the latest gems via a monthly cognitive lode newsletter. Also, coglode will be tweeting all new gems. Follow and be enlightened!

What’s the problem that cognitive lode is solving?

Research-led thinking is critical for all progressive companies looking to build mindful, smart and powerful products and services. There are ever-more fascinating insights about how we think and behave every day, and we at ribot spend a lot of time sifting through this research to direct and support our clients’ projects.

However, though we find some incredible things, but it can be time-consuming, and sometimes, the academic vernacular can get a bit heavy. The research is also scattered amongst many many different journals, making discovery something of a challenge.

Given these problems, we want to try and bring the wonderful academic work being done in the aforementioned fields to people who might find it useful.

Here’s how we’re breaking down a particular gem page. Note the inclusion of a further reading list and key takeaways for people:

More specifically, the ‘people’ who we’re looking to help are decision-makers: User Experience and Consumer Experience designers, game designers, marketing & strategy folk, business model & process people, and certainly the growing number of UX-focused developers we’re seeing.

We’re incredibly excited that the site will bring these sometimes-disparate groups of talented decision-makers together and provoke interesting conversation on the site.

We really hope you gain value from and enjoy cognitive lode, and we’d love to hear from you if you have ideas on how we can make it even better!

Some brief notes on the name

It’s a play on words of the term ‘cognitive load’, meaning the amount of computing your brain has to do to make a decision.

The term ‘lode’ refers to a strain of rare minerals contained within a rock structure. The term seems to sum up the product perfectly, given the valuable nature of what we’re uncovering, next to the rather more difficult challenge of obtaining it.