Cognitive Load In UX

🧠 Your Brain Is Quietly Paying a Price for Using ChatGPT We spend hours with LLMs like ChatGPT. But are we fully aware of what they’re doing to our brains? A new study from MIT delivers a clear message: The more we rely on AI to generate and structure our thoughts, the more we risk losing touch with essential cognitive processes — creativity, memory, and critical reasoning. 📊 Key insight? When students wrote essays using GPT-4o, real-time EEG data showed a significant decline in activity across brain regions tied to executive control, semantic processing, and idea generation. When those same students later had to write without AI assistance, their performance didn’t just drop — it collapsed. 🔬 What they did: 54 students wrote SAT-style essays across multiple sessions, while high-density EEG tracked information flow between 32 brain regions. Participants were split across three tools: → Solo writing (“Brain-only”) → Google Search → GPT-4o (LLM-assisted) In the final round, the groups switched: GPT users wrote unaided, and unaided writers used GPT. (LLM→Brain and Brain→LLM) ⚡ What they found: Neural dampening: Full reliance on the LLM led to the weakest fronto-parietal and temporal connectivity — signaling lighter executive function and shallower semantic engagement. Sequence effects: Writers who began solo and then layered on GPT showed increased brain-wide activity — a sign of active cognitive engagement. The reverse group (starting with GPT) showed the lowest coordination and overused LLM-preferred vocabulary. Memory failures: In their very first AI-assisted session, no GPT users could recall a single sentence they had just written — while most solo writers could. Cognitive debt: Repeated LLM use led to narrower idea generation and reduced topic diversity — making recovery without AI more difficult. 🌱 What does this mean for us? LLMs make content creation feel frictionless. But that very convenience comes at a cost: Diminished engagement. Lower memory. Narrower thinking. If we want to preserve intellectual independence and the ability to truly think, we need to use LLMs with intention. →Use them too soon, and the brain goes quiet. →Use them after thinking independently — and they amplify our output. ✨ Hybrid workflows are the way forward: Start with your own cognition, then apply LLMs to sharpen, not replace. The most irreplaceable kind of AI will always be Actual Intelligence. 👉 Full study (with TL;DR + summary table): https://zurl.co/0hnox

In many Chinese schools, students pause class for 1–3 minutes and move together — inside the classroom. Are you taking breaks during your office hours? Not a dance. Not military. System design. It’s called 广播体操 (Radio Calisthenics) and it’s been used nationally for decades to reset posture, circulation, and attention. • Prolonged sitting reduces cognitive performance after 30–40 minutes • Short movement breaks improve focus and working memory by 10–15% • Light physical activity increases blood flow to the brain by up to 20% • Even 2 minutes of movement measurably reduces mental fatigue Now apply this to tech and business. Knowledge workers sit 9–11 hours/day, live in back-to-back video calls, and are expected to make high-quality decisions at speed. That’s not a productivity issue. It’s a human-system mismatch. As AI scales execution, human attention becomes the bottleneck. The next performance upgrade may not be more software — but movement designed into workflows. China implemented it at national scale. Optimize the human. Then optimize the system. #FutureOfWork #AI #Productivity #Leadership #HumanPerformance #Neuroscience #TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #WorkplaceDesign #CognitivePerformance

🔎 How To Redesign Complex Navigation: How We Restructured Intercom’s IA (https://lnkd.in/ezbHUYyU), a practical case study on how the Intercom team fixed the maze of features, settings, workflows and navigation labels. Neatly put together by Pranava Tandra. 🚫 Customers can’t use features they can’t discover. ✅ Simplifying is about bringing order to complexity. ✅ First, map out the flow of customers and their needs. ✅ Study how people navigate and where they get stuck. ✅ Spot recurring friction points that resonate across tasks. 🚫 Don’t group features based on how they are built. ✅ Group features based on how users think and work. ✅ Bring similar things together (e.g. Help, Knowledge). ✅ Establish dedicated hubs for key parts of the product. ✅ Relocate low-priority features to workflows/settings. 🤔 People don’t use products in predictable ways. 🤔 Users often struggle with cryptic icons and labels. ✅ Show labels in a collapsible nav drawer, not on hover. ✅ Use content testing to track if users understand icons. ✅ Allow users to pin/unpin items in their navigation drawer. One of the helpful ways to prioritize sections in navigation is by layering customer journeys on top of each other to identify most frequent areas of use. The busy “hubs” of user interactions typically require faster and easier access across the product. Instead of using AI or designer’s mental model to reorganize navigation, invite users and run a card sorting session with them. People are usually not very good at naming things, but very good at grouping and organizing them. And once you have a new navigation, test and refine it with tree testing. As Pranava writes, real people don’t use products in perfectly predictable ways. They come in with an infinite variety of needs, assumptions, and goals. Our job is to address friction points for their realities — by reducing confusion and maximizing clarity. Good IA work and UX research can do just that. [Useful resources in the comments ↓] #ux #IA

Clinicians don’t want more data. They want fewer decisions. HealthTech keeps confusing complexity with sophistication. We assume that because clinicians are smart, they want more dashboards. More alerts. More choices. In truth, they want something no algorithm can measure: Cognitive relief. Imagine you’re a pilot. Mid-flight, you’re shown 17 new dials. Flashing red. Each says something important. Now make a life-or-death decision. Fast. Would you say thank you? That’s what most clinical decision support looks like in HealthTech today. And it’s killing trust faster than bad data ever could. Why? Because information isn’t value. Clarity is. The problem, IMO, isn’t the number of alerts. It’s the hidden cost of each micro-decision. Every time we ask a clinician to interpret another data stream, we’re not helping them, we’re taxing them. It’s not death by data. It’s death by 1,000 cognitive cuts. We’ve forgotten the difference between data and decision. Between information and insight. Between noise and relevance. And worst of all? We often design for what looks impressive - not what actually works on a ward round. The best HealthTech doesn’t make clinicians feel smarter. It makes them feel safer. Not “empowered.” Not “augmented.” Just calm. Just clear. That’s the gold standard now isn’t it? Tools that remove thinking, not add to it. If you’re building in HealthTech, Don’t ask: “What more can we show?” Ask: “What decisions can we take away?” That’s where trust is built. That’s where burnout is reduced. Build for fewer decisions. What would you add? P.S. Tools that reduce decisions are finally being valued. VCs are rewarding clarity, not complexity. If your AI product calms the chaos - you're building in the right direction - https://lnkd.in/euA2-8a2

Good intentions cannot build a healthy work environment. We tell leaders to be inclusive, but rarely show them how. Inclusion is a daily practice, not a feeling. Meetings where the loudest voice dominates are systems designed to exclude. My dissertation on Workplace Neurodiverse Equity used Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory to show how environments shape our capacity to thrive. Neurodiversity is the natural variation in human functioning. Everyone is part of it. Some of us just need a bit more intentional help. So, here are 10 practices to lower stress and increase support for your team: 1/ Agendas Reality: Spontaneous demands spike cortisol. Practice: Send agendas and necessary decisions 24 hours in advance. Yield: Ensures deep processing time. 2/ Brainstorming Reality: Verbal brainstorming blocks ideas. Practice: First 10 minutes are silent. Write ideas before speaking. Yield: Eliminates bias of loudest voice. 3/ Cameras Reality: Forced visual attendance drains energy. Practice: State engagement is measured by contributions, not faces. Yield: Reduces sensory overload and prevents fatigue. 4/ Cold Calls Reality: Cold calls trigger fight or flight. Practice: Give notice before asking for input. Yield: Reduces performance anxiety and restores executive function. 5/ Captions Reality: Auditory processing varies wildly. Practice: Enable live transcription on every call by default. Yield: Ensures information is captured despite barriers. 6/ Movement Reality: Movement regulates; it is not a distraction. Practice: Normalize pacing, knitting, or sketching. Yield: Increases focus and emotional regulation. 7/ Processing Time Reality: Forced participation creates anxiety. Practice: Normalize saying you need time to process. Yield: Cultivates psychological safety. 8/ Expectations Reality: Unspoken rules are invisible barriers. Practice: If an expectation matters, write it down. Yield: Eliminates ambiguity and social guessing. 9/ Visuals Reality: Auditory information is fleeting. Practice: Never just speak a point. Share screen or provide written anchor. Yield: Reinforces working memory. 10/ Transitions Reality: Back to back tasks drain executive function. Practice: End meetings at 25 or 50 minute mark. Enforce strict hard stop. Yield: Respects biological limits and allows recovery. Stop relying on good intentions. Start cultivating an environment where every mind can thrive. Just remember, we are all a bit different, stay curious, and adapt to each person. What is one neuro-inclusive practice you plan to plant in your next meeting?

When working on new features, designers often focus purely on usability. However, usability is only one part of launching something successful. Users may never use a well-designed feature if it’s: - A feature they don’t need. - A feature you aren’t communicating well. - A feature that is completely hidden in your product. - A feature you have to kill because it doesn't make business sense. Now, assuming you have a feature that people need... In designing and launching it, try incorporating the following concepts into your thinking: 1. How do users hear about it? 2. How do users discover it? 3. How easy or difficult is it to use? 4. Does it achieve the desired outcome? 5. How does it affect key business metrics? To drive effective communication, work with your product marketing, customer success, or CRM team to inform users about the upcoming launch: - What is the name of the feature? - Is it useful to all users or only a specific subset? - What are the benefits, and how do we show them on our emails/website? To drive discoverability, think of the use case and how it fits within the existing workflow of your users: - What updates do you need to make on your navigation? - What kind of signposting do you need to do with UI elements? - Do you need to do any interlinking with existing features? To measure usability, pick the most appropriate testing method depending on how much time/capacity you have: - Pre-launch, try testing it with a prototype. - Post-launch, use a combination of user tests and in-app surveys. To measure the impact: - Make sure your data tracking events are set up. - Set up a report/dashboard that you can check on a weekly basis. - Work with your data team to calculate projected retention and LTV. — If you found this post helpful, consider reposting ♻️ #productdesign #uxdesign #uiux

When someone lands on your site, every extra word, button, or menu is a cognitive tax. Take this landing page comparison: Attio - keeps the load light • One navigation bar • 12 words in total for the header + sub-header • 9 clickable exits above the fold • Lots of whitespace • Sneak peak at product imagery The result = focus 🧘♀️ HubSpot - seems to have many cooks in the kitchen • Two navigation bars at the top • 50% more words (24 words in the header + subheader) • 13 clickable exits above the fold • Bigger chat widgets • Lifestyle imagery instead of whitespace The result = distraction 🐿️ With busier pages comes higher cognitive load, the paradox of choice, and decision paralysis 🧠 In real terms: if someone pauses even a split second more and doesn’t act, they’re more likely to bounce. And this isn’t just true for landing pages - it applies to pricing pages, homepages, dashboards… anywhere with competing priorities 👩🍳 👩🍳 👩🍳 It’s easy to add, hard to cut. ✂️ Good design isn’t what you add, it’s what you remove (or don't add in the first place). So ask yourself: What's the 30% you can remove from your page? 🗑️

Buyers rarely choose the objectively best option. They choose the one they recognize. In many B2B decisions, familiarity plays a greater role than features or pricing. Teams may evaluate multiple vendors, but preference often leans toward the one they have consistently seen, heard, and understood over time. The reason is simple. Recognition signals safety. When a brand shows up repeatedly with clear, consistent messaging, it reduces perceived risk. Buyers feel more confident choosing what already feels familiar, even if alternatives may appear stronger on paper. This is where many marketing strategies lose effectiveness. In the pursuit of novelty, teams constantly change angles, campaigns, and positioning. But without consistency, recognition never compounds. Messaging resets instead of reinforcing, and trust takes longer to build. Repetition, when done well, is not redundancy. It is reinforcement. Each consistent touchpoint strengthens recall. Each repeated idea builds confidence. Over time, familiarity becomes preference, especially in longer B2B buying cycles. This week’s newsletter explores the psychology behind recognition, why repetition drives trust, and how to build consistency without losing relevance. For teams focused on sustainable growth, this is a shift worth understanding.

Ever made a regrettable decision simply because you were mentally drained? You’re not alone! Mental #fatigue doesn’t just make us feel drained—it reshapes the way we think, prioritize, and choose. What happens in the brain when we’re mentally worn out? Most of us assume the #brain just runs out of energy, but recent research suggests something different. It found that mental fatigue increases the cost of exerting #CognitiveControl—a brain function that helps us focus, resist distractions, and make thoughtful decisions. In this experiment, participants were asked to perform either challenging or simple mental tasks throughout the day. After each round, they made decisions between easy, low-reward options or harder, high-reward ones. This cycle repeated five times over a 6.25 hour period!! They found: 👉 Initially, both groups made similar choices. But over time, participants doing tougher tasks shifted their preferences to easier, low-reward options. This suggests that cognitive fatigue does not just reduce overall performance but increases the perceived cost of cognitive effort, leading to a shift in preferences towards choices that are less demanding. 👉 At the end of the day, a region of the brain associated with cognitive control called the “lateral prefrontal cortex” showed higher concentrations of the chemical glutamate for the participants doing the mentally demanding task, similar to that seen in chronic stress. This increase makes cognitive control harder to perform and may explain why the participants favoured low-cost, low-reward options later in the day. 👉 The change in glutamate levels was not found in the visual cortex, a brain region involved in the task but not typically associated with cognitive control. This finding suggests that the brain changes are localised to the regions needed for cognitive control rather than a result of overall fatigue or loss of energy. Interestingly, when asked about their fatigue at the end of the day, both groups reported the same levels even though only one group was making poorer decisions. In other words, people’s conscious perception of their mental fatigue was not a good indicator of their ability to make good economic decisions. What does this mean? 👉 Take Breaks. Your brain uses rest to clear waste products including glutamate, so taking breaks can help manage the mental fatigue that impairs cognitive control. 👉 Reduce Cognitive Load. Constant task switching, intense problem solving and even learning new skills can all be cognitively demanding. Try to reduce the demand on your cognitive control system by interspersing less demanding tasks. 👉 Avoid time pressure. If you’ve had a mentally demanding time, give yourself additional time before making important decisions. This research raises big questions: How can workplaces design environments to reduce cognitive fatigue? What could this mean for productivity? What strategies do you use to stay mentally sharp during demanding days?

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐓𝐫𝐲 𝐉𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲. You’re juggling three balls, it feels you’ve got this. Now you’re juggling four, it’s tough but you manage. Now you’re juggling five, chaos builds. Now you’re juggling six, you drop all of them! That’s exactly how cognitive load feels. When your brain is juggling too much information and too many decisions at the same time. As a psychologist, I see this all the time. People think they’re indecisive or unproductive, but the truth is, their mental bandwidth is maxed out. 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. When your brain is overwhelmed, even small decisions feel monumental. That’s why you might spend ages picking a restaurant after a day of big meetings. Your brain isn’t lazy—it’s overworked. But it’s not just about feeling tired. Cognitive load impacts the quality of your decisions. The more overwhelmed you are, the more likely you are to choose what’s easy, familiar, or convenient, not necessarily what’s best. Sounds scary. Right? I’ve worked with clients who felt stuck, unable to decide between career moves, new opportunities, or even personal goals. Most of the time, the problem wasn’t indecision. It was the sheer amount of information and options clouding their minds. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬? → 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐬: Be selective about what you consume. Your brain wasn’t designed to process infinite notifications or social feeds. Filter and focus. → 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Make decisions in clusters. Planning your week’s meals in one go is far less taxing than deciding every day. → 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Not every choice deserves endless time. Give yourself limits. Trust your instincts and move forward. One client came to me overwhelmed by decisions, from strategic career moves to daily operations. We simplified her processes, grouped her tasks, and gave her decision-making space. Within weeks, she felt clearer, more confident, and far more in control. Cognitive load isn’t something you can escape entirely, but you can manage it. By reducing the mental clutter, you create space for clarity, confidence, and focus. If this clicks with you, I’d be delighted to share more insights into the psychology of decision-making with your team! Let’s get talking! #decisionmaking #team #mentalhealth #career #psychology #personaldevelopment