The use of smartphone applications has increased dramatically in the last decade. With the technology being ubiquitous around us it is important to reduce the required cognitive demand for interacting with the technology. A common use of smartphones is calendar applications. This paper investigates if cognitive load can be lowered by using a calendar application specifically designed with cognitive load in mind compared to the widely used Google Calendar. The hypothesis is that the application will generate a lower cognitive load in comparison. An experiment was conducted where participants were instructed to perform a primary task by following given instructions of what to do in the calendar application while also performing a secondary task. There were no significant differences in performance except for two tasks where the new app performed worse. Participants also reported a higher level of frustration for the new app which could mean that their cognitive load was slightly higher. / Användandet av smartphone applikationer har ökat dramatiskt under det senaste decenniet, eftersom att tekniken hela tiden är närvarande runt om oss så är det viktigt att minska de kognitiva kraven som behövs vid användandet. Ett vanligt användande av smartphones är kalenderapplikationer, den här studien undersöker om den kognitiva belastningen kan minskas vid användandet av en kalender app genom att använda applikation som designats med kognitiv belastning i åtanke för att sen jämföras mot Google Kalender. Hypotesen är att applikationen kommer att generera en lägre kognitiv belastning i jämförelse. Ett experiment utfördes där deltagarna instruerades att utföra en huvuduppgift som innebar att utföra givna instruktioner med uppdrag i kalendarapplikationen, samtidigt som en sekundär uppgift utfördes där deltagarna fick trycka på en knapp när en signal hördes. Det var ingen signifikant skillnad i prestation förutom i två uppgifter där appen presterade sämre, deltagarna rapporterade också en högre nivå av frustration vilket skulle kunna innebära att den kognitiva belastningen var något högre.

ADHD affects executive functions and pharmacological treatment is the most common intervention. Medication is ineffective for some and psychosocial interventions are scarcely available. CBT that teaches organizational skills for managing ADHD-symptoms has shown promising results. Smartphones can help individuals perform executive tasks such as planning and organization and they could be efficacious as a support tool for ADHD patients. The current study is a RCT that compares an online course (n=29) based on previously effective CBT treatments for ADHD to a wait-list control (n=29). The intervention focused on teaching the use of an online calendar and smartphone apps. The intervention brought significant improvement (p < 0.001) to participants regarding ADHD symptoms and 38% of participants were considered clinically significantly improved. This indicates that online treatments using IT-tools for ADHD is effective and that smartphones can be used as a tool for aiding individuals with impairments in executive functions.