Miller's Law
Cognitive Load & Information Processing
Miller's Law
George Miller's finding that the average person can hold 7 (plus or minus 2) items in working memory at one time. Influences how information should be grouped and presented.
Explained
- Working memory holds only a handful of items at once, roughly seven give or take.
- Push past that and people start dropping details or feeling overwhelmed.
- Grouping content into a few chunks keeps it within that narrow capacity.
- Menus, steps, and lists all work better when kept short and structured.
In the wild
No indexed product screens use this model yet — check back as more products are analyzed.
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