
Design Principles for Reducing Cognitive Load - prostoalex
https://blog.marvelapp.com/design-principles-reducing-cognitive-load/
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jonaf
This article is interesting, but in case you're like me and read comments
before articles to get a tl;dr, this article is about _web design._ I was
personally hopeful it was about managing teams or projects, which does have
analogous lessons, but it's specifically about web design.

Disclaimer: no longer a web designer; take my opinion on the substance of the
article lightly.

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maroonblazer
In that case have you read "Managing the Design Factory" by Reinertsen?
Excellent book on managing projects and teams.

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jonaf
I haven't, but thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!

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bluetwo
Cause 4. Too much information.

Cause 5. Multichannel redundancy (i.e., reading something to someone as they
try to read similar text)

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partycoder
Cause #0: implicit information.

Implicit information may force people to guess what is being said. Turns a
simple thing into a riddle.

Cause #-1: lack of consistency

When something is designed in a different way, people try to infer why it's
different. If they turn out to be the same thing, it pisses people off.

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tony-allan
Almost all of the points in the article also apply to programming languages!

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Theodores
There is much to add to this list. For instance the task of writing concise
copy. It can take a lot of work to get there. A simple form may require only a
few sentences to guide someone through but getting everything in a logical
order can require several iterations. The finished result may be the result of
many, many tests. Sometimes only working with the form and building the
backend for it is how to get to the result. In fact you need to know that
problem space to get there. The finished results should look effortless and
simple but there may be many commits leading to getting there.

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jarmitage
I saw a talk on Friday about designing interfaces for people with locked in
syndrome. It turned out that to be effective they needed to design for
increasing cognitive load rather than reducing it.

As everyone knows, how and when to employ a principle is the key!

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GuiA
Any link to that talk, or info about the speaker(s)?

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jarmitage
It's going to be on BBC in December

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Beowolve
Says a website with hover share buttons and distracting color choices. I had
trouble focusing on mobile because this site had so much going on.

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kentosi
Exactly what I wanted to say. At one point I almost thought that this was a
copy-paste job from some other, more clearer site.

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szatkus
It is. There is the link on the end of article:
[https://blog.prototypr.io/design-principles-for-reducing-
cog...](https://blog.prototypr.io/design-principles-for-reducing-cognitive-
load-84e82ca61abd)

