The working memory has limited capacity. Research shows that young adults can only hold 3-5 items in their heads at a time. And the older you are, the fewer you can hold. As such, it’s easy for users to forget how to accomplish a task they’ve done before. When this happens, it can cause them to spend a lot of time and cognitive effort to figure it out.
For this reason, it’s essential to apply the principle of flexibility to your interface design. The flexibility principle can be defined as:
It’s difficult to remember a single way to perform a task that requires working memory. When your interface offers multiple ways to accomplish the task, users can choose their most preferred way. A flexible interface reduces cognitive load, so users don’t have to rely on memory to recall information.
Data Input Flexibility
Flexibility is often necessary with data inputs. When users need to input data in unit measurements, you should allow users to choose the metric system they prefer. The user may not know how to calculate their data with the metric system or imperial units. Giving them the option to toggle between the two makes it easy for them to input their data.
Subscribe to read full article…
If you want to see more examples of flexibility applied to forms and menus, subscribe to read the full article. For only $9/mo, you’ll get unlimited access to our entire archive of premium UX articles.
Book
Affiliate
