Every interface asks users for attention, time, and trust. The silent agreement is simple: don’t make me work harder than I need to. Yet many products break this promise not through bad visuals, but by asking users to think too much.

Cognitive load is the mental effort required to use a product. When it’s high, users slow down, make mistakes, or quietly give up. They may not explain why, but they remember the frustration.

This is the cognitive load conundrum. Designers want powerful systems. Users want clarity. This post looks at what research tells us about balancing both and keeping interfaces intuitive without stripping them of depth.