Cognitive Load - UX Words to Know
What is Cognitive Load in UX?
Do you ever find yourself struggling to figure out how to use something? Maybe like when you buy a new phone or tablet? That mental effort is called cognitive load, and in UX design, we try to give our users less of it.
Essentially, cognitive load is the amount of brain power we use when interacting with a product or completing a task.
In UX, there are three types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane.
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Intrinsic load is the mental effort required by the task itself. For example, since you’re new to using photoshop, you’ll find it more mentally taxing than your friend who’s a photoshop pro.
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Extraneous load is caused by unnecessary or irrelevant elements in the interface, like confusing instructions or distracting images. Too many pop-up ads or confusing navigation can make a task harder and increase cognitive load.
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Germane load is the mental effort required to process and integrate new information, like remembering and applying new vocabulary words learned from an app to real life conversations.
So if you want to make things easier on your end users and minimize cognitive load, follow these tips:
- avoid visual clutter and build on existing mental models by using familiar layouts that users have encountered on other websites
- offload tasks for users by showing pictures, utilizing auto-fill, or setting smart defaults
Eliminating unnecessary tasks that take up brain power will leave your users with a clearer mind so they can efficiently use your product!
