Cognitive Load Theory

Three distinct sources of mental effort. The designer's job is to cut one, manage another, and protect the third.

• Intrinsic — inherent task difficulty. Can't be removed, but managed: chunk it, sequence it, apply progressive disclosure.
• Extraneous — overhead imposed by poor design (clutter, inconsistency, unclear copy, bad layout). Eliminate this — it's pure waste and squarely the designer's responsibility.
• Germane — productive effort spent building useful mental models. Preserve this — it's the user learning the system; don't strip it out chasing "simplicity."

How to apply

• When a screen overwhelms, first ask: is this intrinsic (hard task) or extraneous (bad design)? Attack extraneous first — it's free.
• Reduce intrinsic load by chunking and progressive disclosure, not by removing capability.
• Don't over-simplify away germane load — onboarding and well-designed friction that teaches the model are worth keeping.
• Every inconsistency, redundant field, and unclear label is extraneous load. Hunt them.