Working Memory

Constraints

• Practical capacity: ~3–4 chunks; easily disrupted.
• Sensitive to stress and multitasking.

Design tactics

• Chunk content; progressive disclosure; clear hierarchy.
• Recognition over recall; visible context and history.
• Defaults and sensible autofill; save state and drafts.

References

• Cowan (2001) — The magical number 4 in short-term memory. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01591-6
• NN/g — Short-Term Memory and Web Usability: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/short-term-memory-and-web-usability/