#Cognitive Load

[werbooz]

Why User-Centered Design is the Key to Online Success: Leveraging Psychology and Design Principles to Create Meaningful Experiences

 

User-Centered Design (UCD) is crucial in today’s digital world, where success relies not just on aesthetics or functionality but on crafting a user experience that resonates with users on a deeper psychological level. UCD prioritizes not only visual appeal but also the way users think, feel, and behave. Creating effective User-Centered Design is simpler than it may seem; it involves applying psychological principles, such as understanding cognitive load and paying careful attention to even the smallest design details. By focusing on these aspects, we can develop experiences that are not only intuitive but also rewarding. In this blog, we will explore why this approach is essential and how real-world examples highlight its significant impact.

Understanding Human Behavior: The Psychological Pillars of User Centered Design

Every user interaction with a product involves mental processing. If this process is considered overly cumbersome—in other terms if the user experiences a high cognitive load then—there is a likelihood that users will feel an overload and thus get annoyed and quit your site/product. One of the key ideas in user-centric design is reducing cognitive load, or the amount of mental effort required to use and understand a product.

Hick’s Law: Simplifying Choices

Hick’s Law states that the time taken to make a decision increases with the number of alternative choices available to the individual user and hence the more choices available to be used by or have the decision the more prolonged it will take for the user to make a decision. Thus, if a website bombards users with too many actionable options then the users may hesitate or leave entirely. Because of this same reason platforms like Netflix offer recommendations to its users to limit the choices and to show the user what’s most relevant. So, Instead of overwhelming users with the entire library, Netflix focuses on curating options that best fits the user preferences, thus making decision-making easier and faster.

Netflix Interface Showcasing Uses Hick’s Law to Simplify Choices

Fitts’s Law: Designing for Ease of Access

Fitts’s Law explains that why large, well-placed buttons are more effective than small buttons that are hard to reach. Users must have no friction or struggle to find key actions on your website/product. Amazon implements this really well by placing the "Add to Cart" buttons in prominent locations.

Design comparison showing familiar interface versus unfamiliar

These buttons are easy to spot and are large enough to click effortlessly, and also the buttons are placed so strategically to minimize user effort. This simple but thoughtful design element can significantly increase conversions because by doing so Amazon reduces the friction in the user's buying journey.

The Impact of Small Design Decisions: Tiny Tweaks that Leads to Big Results

Small design decisions can lead to a significant difference in how users interact with a product, even if the differences seem atomic or minute at first glance.

The Importance of Spacing 

Strategic spacing between elements can drastically improve focus and comprehension. According to the Gestalt Principles of Perception, specifically the Proximity Principle, items placed closely together are perceived as related, while those spaced apart draw more attention individually. Even something as simple as reducing visual clutter makes an enormous difference.

For example, Airbnb uses this principle beautifully. Their listings have plenty of white space, making it easier for users to digest information like pricing, property details, and reviews without feeling overwhelmed. By strategically spacing elements, they guide user attention to what’s most important—booking a stay.

FAQ

Que 1. What is User-Centered Design (UCD)?

Ans 1. User-Centered Design (UCD) is a design method that prioritizes the end user's demands, behaviors, and preferences. It entails studying and understanding customer expectations in order to develop products that are intuitive, simple to use, and aligned with user objectives.

Que 2.  How does psychology influence user-centered design?

Ans 2. Psychology has an effect on UCD because it helps creators understand how people think, act, and make decisions. Making digital systems easier to use and more interesting is based on psychological principles such as Hicks' Law (choice time), Fitts' Law (interaction efficiency), and the Gestalt principles (perception and organization).

Que 3. What is the difference between user-centered and conventional design?

Ans 3. The user's demands are prioritized in user-centered design, as opposed to traditional design that prioritizes aesthetics or corporate goals. Whereas traditional design may overlook important user feedback, resulting in usability problems, UCD constantly tests and refines based on user input.

Discover the Full Story

[pixelizes]

The Psychology Behind Great UX

How to Design for Human Behavior?

Understanding human psychology is the foundation of great UX design. By leveraging cognitive science, behavioral patterns, and psychological principles, designers can create intuitive, engaging, and user-friendly experiences. In this blog, we’ll explore how psychology shapes UX and how to apply these insights to build products that resonate with users.

Cognitive Load: Keeping Interfaces Simple

What Is Cognitive Load? Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to process information. Too much at once can overwhelm users, leading to frustration and abandonment.

How to Reduce It:

Remove unnecessary elements.

Use familiar design patterns (e.g., standard navigation layouts).

Break content into smaller, digestible chunks.

Prioritize key content for your users.

Example: Google’s homepage reduces cognitive load by focusing on one core action—search.

Hick’s Law: Limiting Choices for Faster Decisions

What Is Hick’s Law? This principle states that decision time increases with the number of choices available.

How to Apply It:

Limit visible options.

Use progressive disclosure for complex tasks.

Highlight primary CTAs with visual hierarchy.

Example: Amazon’s streamlined checkout highlights the “Buy Now” button, reducing friction.

Fitts’s Law: Designing for Easy Interaction

What Is Fitts’s Law? Fitts’s Law says the time to reach a target depends on its size and distance—larger, closer elements are easier to interact with.

How to Use It:

Create large, easily tappable buttons.

Place key actions within thumb zones (especially on mobile).

Space out touch targets.

Example: Apple’s iOS keyboard ensures usability by placing frequently used keys in easy-to-reach zones.

The Von Restorff Effect: Make It Pop

What Is It? Also known as the “isolation effect,” it suggests users are more likely to notice and remember distinct elements.

How to Apply It:

Use bold or contrasting colors for CTAs.

Highlight key messages with unique visual treatment.

Make errors visually distinct.

Example: Dropbox’s bright blue CTA pops on a white background, driving conversions.

The Serial Position Effect: Strategic Placement

What Is It? People remember the first and last items in a sequence better than those in the middle.

How to Use It:

Place critical links at the top and bottom of navigation.

Start and end sections with high-impact content.

Order form fields by importance.

Example: E-commerce sites often showcase bestsellers at the beginning and end of product lists for maximum engagement.

The Zeigarnik Effect: Nudging Task Completion

What Is It? People remember incomplete tasks more than completed ones, which motivates them to return and finish them.

How to Apply It:

Use progress indicators on multi-step tasks.

Send follow-up emails for unfinished actions.

Apply gamification like completion meters.

Example: Duolingo uses streaks and progress bars to encourage daily use and course completion.

Emotional Design: Building a Connection

What Is Emotional Design? It involves creating UI/UX that triggers emotional responses—joy, satisfaction, trust.

How to Design Emotionally:

Use friendly microcopy (e.g., Slack’s playful messages).

Include delightful animations and transitions.

Apply color psychology to influence feelings (e.g., blue = trust).

Example: Instagram’s heart animation offers instant emotional feedback, strengthening engagement.

Final Thoughts

UX design isn’t just about visual appeal—it’s about aligning with how users think and feel. By applying psychological principles like Hick’s Law, Fitts’s Law, and emotional design, you create experiences that feel natural, intuitive, and rewarding.

[raffaellopalandri]

Organizing Knowledge: My Mental Map for Learning

I usually do not spend much time chatting about pointless or purposeless topics, both because of my nature and because of the Buddhist precept of abstaining from idle chatter. Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com Also, I notice that when I speak in a social gathering and the topic involves knowledge and learning, people find my style quite different from theirs, if not somewhat…

[familythings]

Women Need More Sleep Than Men: A Shocking Study Unveils the Science Behind the Gender Sleep Gap

Sleep is one of the most fundamental human needs, yet recent studies have unearthed an eye-opening conclusion: women, on average, need more sleep than men. The reason? Women’s brains work harder, multitask more frequently, and, as a result, need extra recovery time. This revelation adds another dimension to the ongoing discussion about gender differences, but it also raises questions about how we…

[randomyounglady]

I am making this it's own post because I did not want to derail the original poll.

For people I follow and am mutuals with, I go entirely based on your profile picture to know who you are. I have never been the best with names in real life, but on here, trying to process the extra text while trying to mindlessly scroll would just add too much cognitive load for me to handle.

In this vein, I've actually unfollowed people in the past after they changed profile pictures and I just could not reconnect with them. In other cases I have kept following them, but my brain triggers the new profile picture as a different person and I have to remind myself it is the same person despite the entirely different look.

Am I alone in this? Do I just process the platform differently than others? Please let me know.

[dannysciencefix]

Cognitive Theory and Primary Science Teaching

Cognitive science is gaining increasing influence in education and many existing and developing educational approaches are described as ‘inspired by cognitive science’. Many of these approaches have been long practiced or described as effective pedagogy without any reference to cognitive science – for example, quizzing pupils on topics has been common even without this being thought of as a form…

[robpegoraro]

Having a case of the Cyber Mondays--and the Giving Tuesdays

Can we all please agree to punt "Giving Tuesday" to the last Tuesday in December?

My inbox needs a rest more than usual after the last few days. The annual deluge of Black Friday retail sales pitches is bad enough, but then we have “Cyber Monday” pitches (the entire name is obsolete, since it’s been years since most people would have had to return to office bandwidth to shop online after Thanksgiving), followed by “Giving Tuesday” pleas for charitable donations. I understand…

[empty-movement]

Someday, Shine With Me...

It's Christmas Eve. It's 1997. You actually went to see the AWESOME Utena Musical over the weekend, and you have rewatched your VHS tape recordings of the last episode a dozen times.

You've been jamming out to Internal Clock, Municipal Orrery. You obtained a time machine to pour over episode commentaries by Ikuhara and Saito that cover the last three episodes. You've already stolen the script from be-Papas' office. You've even got a screencap gallery of it!

You've been watching along with some other internetizens, because forums are cool.

You've been staring at the insane art drop by Akemi Hayashi for this month's Animage Magazine:

You've been poring over the to-be-released creator commentary, transcribed by Vrai Kaiser, whose articles about Utena have been living rent free in your future head all year:

There are two meanings to the Japanese word utena. One is “the calyx of a flower.” That’s also the meaning of the title, of course. The thing that supports the beautiful petals; the one with the noble heart. And the other meaning of utena is “tall tower or pedestal.” We translated this into a visual: the tower at the center of Ohtori Academy, the one with the Chairman’s room on the top floor. And the dueling arena located deep in the woods is the same. In the early stages of production, when the story wasn’t firmly established yet, this was one of the aspects I most wanted to visualize and produce for the screen. A world where demons roam. In its center, a tower called the “Tower of Revolution.” Whosoever can remain victorious in his battles against the demons can reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution, and at the same time receive the power to revolutionize the world; the power that changes the rules of the world. However, when he reaches the pinnacle, he learns the world’s governing laws. He faces the ultimate choice: will he stay nobly, beautifully powerless? Or will he accept ugliness into himself and gain absolute power? He desired both. Or rather, perhaps he couldn’t choose either. His mind in anguish, he divided himself in two. His “noble heart,” and the “adult with absolute power.” And so. With one last wish that the day would come when someone would awaken him, the “noble heart” that had lost its body, in other words the prince, fell into a deep sleep. Early on in the series’s conception, I kicked around the idea of placing something like the above at the heart of the story. Later, after several changes, it became the tale as you know it, but without a doubt, he did reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution. It was a place where “eternity” dwelled. And “eternity” turned out to mean perpetual sleep. The prince (Akio) who became an adult while in perpetual sleep lost something. What he lost was “the power to create an enjoyable future.” Revolution means gaining “the power to imagine the future.” The prince chose to sleep on, and the princess chose to wake up. At the top of that tall tower, the princess bid farewell to the prince. No – she wasn’t the princess any longer. She quit being “a person (thing) ruled by someone.” The victory bells rang, but there was no “tower (rule)” beyond them now. She’d learned where freedom lay. She crossed the threshold of that “Door of Revolution” which had always been closed to her before, and began walking. The “girl’s revolution” lay in the girl’s future. “Wait for me…Utena.” The world (the stage) is free and wide.

You're not ready for Utena to end. Which is good, because it isn't going to. Not for you. Decades from now, Utena will still be here, speaking to you. Challenging you. Changing you.

[bitchesgetriches]

✨NEW POST!✨

Anti-Goblin Mode: The Game I Play Every Day to Reprogram My Disorganized Brain 

It’s finally time to talk about Anti-Goblin Mode: my secret holy grail technique for conquering executive dysfunction in my home, my work, and my life in general.

I’ve never written about it before. It seemed too personal and too silly to share. But since I discovered it, I’ve used it nearly every day of my life—and the transformation has been permanent and incredible. And as our patrons demanded an article on becoming organized, its time has come!

One of the best pieces of general life advice I’ve ever received is this: never ask a natural talent to be your teacher. If they came out of the womb composing piano sonatas, don’t ask them to teach you piano! They literally don’t understand the experience of not knowing what they know! This holds true in organization, too. I find that most “organizational systems” were written by people with a natural talent for organization. Y’know—monsters who can keep a white rug clean. Their advice shouldn’t be trusted. Instead, the best teachers are people who struggled and persevered in the face of mediocrity.

On this point, I’m happy to attest that neither nature nor nurture set me up to be an organized person. I grew up the undiagnosed ADHD child of an undiagnosed ADHD parent who was also a hoarder! That means I’ve earned my organized life valiantly, on the battlefield.

So how? How did I become an organized person? I’m happy to tell you it’s not rigid, or complicated, or super philosophical, or time-consuming. I developed a game to help me do it. It’s very simple, but it’s transformed my life for the better. And I hope it might help you too.

KEEP READING.

Did we just help you out? Say thanks on Patreon!

[mysteriousbloodstain]

too much chronic fatigue to b my usual good company but just awake enough to want to hotbox my room with someone

[rachymarie]

mental health nurse at appt: what medication are you on?

me: have you got all day?

[yourtastefulcannibal]

i’m very curious, but id be embarrassed to ask without anonymity, what are your thoughts on plush toys? a stuffed bear for example? they can be personal or professional thoughts, like their therapeutic value or something.

“Now, I would need to brush up on the literature before I give you an answer that can be empirically supported, however I can offer you my personal thoughts on such things.”

“It is my view that having a comfort item is not uncommon for many individuals, regardless of age and other such factors. While the use of such items as the ones you stated are often viewed as more juvenile items to take solace in, as even I may have had a small stuffed creature as a child, I don’t see why they should be dismissed as having diminished therapeutic value for individuals of more advanced ages. If such an item brings a person comfort, what right should another have to dismiss it as childish?”

“Now, it is not my place to speculate on where you are coming from in life, stranger, however I don’t see a reason why you should feel shame at finding comfort in, for example, a stuffed bear. The world can be a daunting and terrifying place, and if such a thing assists you in managing your emotional equilibrium, there is no reason to feel humiliation in it. It would speak more on the immaturity of those offering you reproach than it would on you.”

[amorficzna]

Everybody loves accessibility options in games until they're "annoying"

[bodhimcbodeface]

Things new coworker has done in the first week:

Told me to make sure I use both locks on the bathroom door because someone with a key could open one of them

Zipped up a 1-2 inch gap in the side of my backpack because someone could drop an AirTag in (please don’t touch my backpack while I’m wearing it!!!)

Saw me making a to-do list on a dry-erase tablet and told me to be careful because what would I do if some of it got erased

I’m already working hard to avoid mental overload on this job and this is just stressing me out more

[luncheon-aspic]

Sometimes you read a paper that's sooo good you just want to email the author and go omgggggg

[yanashin-blog]

Amazon Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels’ dictum “you build it, you run it”

DevOps was not simply a new way of delivering software. It brought a whole new way of thinking about our roles as individuals within a team and how we interact with those around us.

“you build it, you run it” emerged on the scene as a whole new way of thinking.

The Limits of DevOps

But that was a long time ago. The world has changed, and with it, the reality of systems development in the 2000s began to look dated and out of step with the era of increasingly complex and highly distributed software systems.

This increased complexity has created new challenges in the way software is built and deployed. From a team and organizational perspective, it places new stresses and burdens on the people actually doing the work. It also leads to the production of cognitive load.

What the result actually brings is massive burnout.

Specialization is not a bad thing when the tool chain is very complex. Specialization does not mean siloing.

When specialization removes barriers, it blurs who is in charge of what.

So how do we clarify those boundaries? The key is how to increase specialization so that people can focus on what they do best.

This is where platform engineering comes in.

The rise of Platform Engineering

How does platform engineering clarify the boundary between developers and operations personnel? With platform engineering building the IDP, the operations department can configure the infrastructure and focus on the actual operations and infrastructure issues. On the other hand, developers will be able to self-serve and not have to bother the operations department. Also, the operations department will no longer have to worry about repetitive requests from developers.