7 tips to improve your designs with an understanding of Cognitive Load Theory

If you’d like to learn more — let’s continue!

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) describes the way we process information and refers to the used amount of memory resources. The fewer resources users employ, the easier for them.

Our memory has a limited capacity and it’s easy to overload it. To understand how to control this in your designs, let’s figure out how it works.

Based on a model of human memory processing (published by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968 and widely accepted), our memory breaks down into three main parts — sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory.

Stores sensory information from our receptors just long enough to transfer to the working memory (usually ¼ to ½ second).

Sensory memory filters out most of the information and transfers only the most important items to the working memory.

For example, when you are playing tennis, you are focused on a ball and your opponent. Your memory discards all unimportant stuff that is happening around you like weather conditions, people playing nearby, your breathing, various smells, or your inconvenient sweaty T-shirt.

Stores 7 (give or take 2) items of information a human is currently thinking of. Usually, they are being kept in the memory for 0–30 seconds.

When the information gets to the working memory, it can be either processed or discarded. Our brain tries to compare the data with existing schemas that are stored in long term memory. If the information is new, a new schema will be created. If the information matches an existing schema, the brain just reuses the current data.

Stores any information for unlimited time and has endless capacity. The data is stored in structures called “schemas.” For example, your brain has a schema for cats, cars, math, or anything you are experienced with.

We lose information when the working memory is being overwhelmed. A new experience, challenging tasks, and distractions are the most effort-consuming things. They quickly fill up the capacity of the working memory.

As a designer, you should create a user interface that keeps users’ minds barely loaded and helps them to free up memory as often as possible. The fewer items held in the working memory, the more margin it has to process data.

Rather than putting many items into memory, focus a user on one thing at a time. For instance, you can break a massive form down into several steps to make it easier to fill out.

We free up memory when a task is done because it is considered unimportant by our brains. Use that!

For example, if you have a lengthy onboarding, you can show a completion screen after 3–4 steps. That gives a sense of reward for a user and cleans up the memory at the same time.

Remembering something unfamiliar is a very effort-consuming operation for our brains. Summarize information, keep it short, use as few items as possible.

Take a look at this example. Instead of using many tooltips for the first visit, you can show 1–2 items per session. In this case, the user will be able to read them carefully, react, or remember.

When the brain uses an existing schema, it costs much less effort. And when a user is highly experienced in something, it may even cost almost zero energy.

Use common navigation patterns, icons, UI elements. Almost everybody knows how the “save” icon should look like, or how the hamburger menu works.

Reuse existing components from your UI kit when you don’t have a clear reason to create a new one.

When you introduce new experiences, you can reference something that users already know.

For example, if you ask me what a jaguar is, I would tell you that “a jaguar is a big cat with spotted fur that resides in Central America.” As you can see, I used a cat as an example because their behavior, skeleton, and general look are similar. Excepts the things I mentioned.

It’s easier for your brain to encode new data that is based on the existing schema of a cat.

Side noise, notifications, animations, parallel tasks, etc. significantly increase memory load. The worst thing is that people cannot fully control this because a distraction is often a surprise.

Determine what the most important thing is and put it in the center. Dim out everything else.

It is fascinating that our brains treat visual and audio inputs differently. So you can use both channels simultaneously. It’s not a perfect solution but it will reduce cognitive load.

For example, you can use audio to give users some instructions. Think about video games. Game designers often onboard you into the game-mechanics by using voice in the background.

Related posts:

Discovering your talent can be a challenging but rewarding process. Here are a few steps you can take to help discover your talent: Remember that talent is often developed through practice and hard…

This resonates with me, because I believe that without God I would not have breath. It is God that breathes through me, and protects me. I am grateful for the love I feel every day from my loving…

There is a lot of responsibility and obligations that come along in DC. It is also an extremely complicated and costly process. One must be able to manage assets on behalf of a minor child and be…