Scientific category · 10 concepts

Cognitive load and complexity

Models and heuristics for understanding limited mental resources, task complexity, and where a system should carry unavoidable work.

Questions this category answers

Which effort is inherent to the task?
What effort does the interface add?
Where should complexity live?

Research context: Cognitive load theory, problem solving, and interface complexity

Reference set

Explore the concepts

A decision path becomes tangled as many similar options surround it.

Cognitive load

Choice Overload

Large or difficult choice sets can reduce decision confidence or action when options are hard to compare and preferences are uncertain.

Twelve individual marks are organized into three clearly separated groups.

Cognitive load

Chunking

Organizing separate items into meaningful, familiar groups can make information easier to perceive, rehearse, and retrieve.

A limited workspace fills with task blocks while additional information spills outside.

Cognitive load

Cognitive Load

Cognitive load describes demands placed on limited working-memory resources while a person learns or performs a task.

The same simple task appears once behind distracting interface noise and once in a clear presentation.

Cognitive load

Extraneous Cognitive Load

Extraneous cognitive load is mental work caused by how information or a task is presented rather than by the relationships that must be learned.

Essential task elements remain connected by relationships that cannot be removed without changing the task.

Cognitive load

Intrinsic Cognitive Load

Intrinsic cognitive load is the working-memory demand created by interacting elements that are inherent to what must be understood or performed.

A limited set of memory slots holds grouped chunks while extra ungrouped items remain outside.

Cognitive load

Miller’s Law

Immediate-memory performance is limited and can improve through meaningful recoding, but Miller’s ‘seven plus or minus two’ is not a universal UI item limit.

Several routes reach the same result, with unnecessary branches removed from the simplest sufficient path.

Cognitive load

Occam’s Razor

When explanations or designs account for the same requirements equally well, prefer the one that depends on fewer unnecessary assumptions.

A simple initial interface opens into two deeper layers of detail as needed.

Cognitive load

Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure presents the information and controls needed now, then reveals additional detail when the user asks or the task reaches it.

A fixed complexity weight shifts between the system side and the user side of a balance.

Cognitive load

Tesler’s Law

Some task complexity is irreducible, so design determines whether the system, the user, or an organization carries that work.

A small temporary workspace holds a few items while one item is actively transformed.

Cognitive load

Working Memory

Working memory is a limited system for temporarily maintaining and manipulating information needed by the current task.

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