Think about a computer that runs too many programs at the same time. It has a higher chance of crashing and slowing down many usual computing processes.
This is also happening for human brains because they have a limited processing capability. Compared with computers, humans take much longer to understand different information, and are more likely to become overwhelmed in complex situations.
Being surrounded by different advanced technologies, we are exposed to a higher mental effort, also known as cognitive load, because it is present in almost every website or app interaction.
In the context of user experience, the cognitive load represents the mental efforts that users experience when they are navigating through a website or app. It’s important to understand how the human brain is capable of managing a huge amount of information because this way you will be able to minimize this cognitive load for the next interactions.
Cognitive load theory, as described in the field of psychology, explains how the mental efforts required by learning tasks can minimize the student’s ability to process new information. Even though web browsing represents a simpler activity compared with traditional education, mental efforts still represent an important aspect when creating a new website or app.
Cognitive load directly impacts how users interact with a digital product, because in those cases when interfaces are confusing or cluttered, users will find it difficult to understand and can quickly become overwhelmed. These situations lead to mistakes, frustration, and eventually task abandonment.
Instead, when websites or apps are designed especially to reduce the cognitive load, they provide a much smoother user experience along with more intuitive navigation. So, you should know that this factor plays a crucial role in conversion rate because an easy-to-navigate website or app has a higher chance of increasing the retention rate.
So, when starting a new UX project, it’s important to think about the mental effort that users experience when navigating. This way, you will create a unique digital product that provides an effortless and enjoyable experience.
- Several factors can cause a high mental effort for users, and the most common one is cluttered interfaces in websites or app designs, where there are too many elements that need the user’s attention, creating a difficult reading experience.
- Also, an unorganized information structure where various details are placed everywhere in the design can force users to put a lot of effort into understanding every detail displayed.
- The inconsistent design patterns play a crucial role in cognitive load because all the buttons and elements need to be created in the same pattern to be visually appealing and create a consistent website or app for users to interact with.
- However, the poor visual hierarchy can be blamed for making all the content difficult to understand because it can significantly slow down any task.
Keep in mind that the user’s attention represents the most important aspect of a website or app design, and it should be treated correctly in order to maintain it as long as possible.
- Prevent the visual clutter: by using the white space effectively and limiting the number of elements in the design, you will help users to have an increased focus on what’s really important. Make sure to remove all the irrelevant images or redundant links that can easily distract or confuse visitors.
- Provide feedback: implement your digital product and provide immediate feedback in order to reduce cognitive overload. Elements such as links, buttons, and other interactive elements should provide feedback when clicked or hovered over to indicate that the system is processing the user’s actions.
- Improve the visual hierarchy: by creating a well-designed visual hierarchy, you will be able to guide the user’s attention based on the colors, contrast, and spacing used to highlight different important elements that need to be in the attention of visitors.
Users can sometimes be hard to satisfy, but it’s important to create a digital product design that doesn’t require a lot of effort when users navigate through it. Try and think about how you, as a designer, would want to interact with a website or app and implement different strategies that can significantly improve the navigation experience.
We at uinkits understand the importance of great user experiences and creating amazing UI designs. That’s why we’ve developed a Figma UI Kit with design components that include these essential UI elements that enable you to design intuitive and user-friendly interfaces effortlessly.
“You press the button, we do the rest.” – Kodak.
Inspired by this iconic tagline from Kodak, we believe in simplifying the design process for you. Our Figma UI Kit, uinkits, is a complete design system with UI components that allows you, as a UI UX designer, to create your products as quickly as pressing a button.
Our design system includes UI components, icons, variables, cards, buttons and everything you need for your design process. All you have to do is take your UI design component needed, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!
