Skilled UX design is aerodynamic. Any bumps on the way — such as excessive cognitive load — will drag the whole plane down.

If the user has to click an icon to discover its function, they will be knocked off course.

Here’s a great exercise for finding unnecessary actions: List every step a user must do to complete a task . For example, sending an email might look like this:

1. Click the email icon.


2. Click in the “Send to” input field.


3. Type the email address.


4. Click in the “Subject” input field.


5. And so on.

Now, rescan the list and look for redundancies . Get any ideas?

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Let’s look at this very article to explain the differences. As you’re reading, you might come across an unfamiliar concept in blue text. Your working memory needs to know what the concept in blue text means in order to comprehend the greater meaning of the article. Your long-term memory knows that blue text means a link, so your working memory... See more