Design principles for reducing cognitive load

Every time you visit a website, a process of learning is initiated in the brain. Whether it’s the navigation, layout, or that auto-rotating image slider on the homepage, your brain has to learn how to use the site while keeping track of the reason you came there in the first place. The mental effort required during this time is called cognitive load. Now the catch: the working memory in which this information is processed and stored is limited. Your brain begins to slow down or even abandon the task at hand when it receives more information than it can handle. Although cognitive load isn’t entirely avoidable, designers must strive to manage and accommodate these limits.

Avoid unnecessary elements
Leverage common design patterns
Eliminate unnecessary tasks
Minimize choices
Display choices as a group
Strive for readability
Use iconography with caution

Help needed for "Design principles for reducing cognitive load"!

The following is missing from this set of principles:

Summary: Each design principle can have a brief summary, these could be a couple of lines or a detailed paragraph outlining how this principle is used or measured, e.g.

- principle: Strive to be universal
summary: Our aim is to be a resource that is helpful to everyone. We do this by strictly adhering to principles of progressive enhancement…

Tip! You may be able to find the missing information at the source URL:
https://jonyablonski.com/2015/design-principles-for-reducing-cognitive-load/.

It would be great if you could contribute and update this set of principles with anything that's missing!

Avoid unnecessary elements

Leverage common design patterns

Eliminate unnecessary tasks

Minimize choices

Display choices as a group

Strive for readability

Use iconography with caution