Cognitive Load Engineering: The science of mental effort in government service design
The cognitive load theory was coined by John Sweller in 1988, in the paper Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Sweller began to run experiments on our memory to find ways to improve our solving problem skills.
Our memory plays a major role in our work.
When citizens interact with government services, they often do so while managing multiple life priorities and responsibilities. Whether renewing a business license during a busy work period, applying for document authentication while planning travel, or updating personal information during a family transition, these interactions rarely occur in isolation from other demands on their time and attention.
This context makes understanding cognitive load essential for government service design. Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to complete a task. Our memory plays a vital role in helping manage the cognitive load. Therefore, it becomes imperative to create a service flow that is common and can be recalled from memory, which can simplify that mental stress.
When we create unnecessarily complex interfaces, we potentially create barriers to accessing important government services. Let's explore this further.
Understanding the three types of mental effort
- Intrinsic Load represents the mental effort inherent to the task itself—understanding eligibility requirements, comprehending legal obligations, or processing policy information. This type of load is necessary and cannot be eliminated.
- Extraneous Load is the unnecessary mental effort caused by poor design decisions—confusing navigation, unclear instructions, or requiring users to remember information that should be displayed contextually. This load can and should be minimized.
- Germane Load represents productive mental effort that helps citizens understand how government services work and why certain requirements exist.
The goal of cognitive load engineering is to eliminate extraneous load while optimizing the balance between intrinsic and germane load.
Why government services are cognitively unique
Citizens often interact with government services during high-stress situations—job transitions, family changes, legal requirements, or urgent documentation needs. Research shows that stress significantly reduces cognitive capacity, making it harder to process information, make decisions, and remember instructions.
Government services also involve high-stakes outcomes where mistakes can result in delayed benefits or legal consequences. Unlike commercial services where users can choose alternatives, government services are often the only option for specific needs.
The impact of stress on decision-making
When people experience stress, their brain prioritizes immediate concerns over complex reasoning. This means citizens may struggle to hold multiple pieces of information in mind, make complex decisions, follow multi-step processes, or recover from errors.
These realities require us to design government services that function effectively even when users are operating under cognitive constraints.
Practical strategies for reducing cognitive load
Progressive Information Disclosure
Present information in carefully sequenced stages rather than overwhelming users with everything at once.
Instead of a single page with personal information, employment history, financial details, and document requirements, break it into clear steps:
Step 1: "Basic information about you"
Step 2: "Your current situation"
Step 3: "Supporting documents"
Step 4: "Review and submit"
Intelligent Defaults and Contextual Help
Pre-select appropriate options based on user context while allowing changes. Provide relevant information exactly when needed—show help text when someone focuses on a difficult field, display document requirements next to upload areas, and offer examples of acceptable responses.
Mental Model Alignment
Organize information according to how citizens think about their needs, not internal departmental strctures. Citizens don't think "Department of Social Services"—they think "help with housing." Use plain language that matches how people describe their situations.
Cultural Considerations for the UAE
In the UAE's multicultural context, consider that non-native speakers require additional cognitive resources for language processing. Reduce this load through visual supplements, clear sentence structures, and consistent terminology.
Different cultures also have varying decision-making approaches—some prefer detailed information upfront, others prefer step-by-step guidance. Design should accommodate both preferences.
Designing government services with cognitive load in mind
Consistency is Comfort
Familiar patterns reduce the need for users to "relearn" each time they interact with a new service.
What to do:
- Use consistent layouts, components, and terminology across all government portals.
- Align all services with the national design system (like the UAE Design System) to create a sense of predictability.
Pre-fill and Personalize
Asking users to repeatedly enter data creates unnecessary friction. Since all UAE Government Services require the user to login via UAE Pass, there is opportunity to pre-fill data and personalise the experience. The internal data of the government entity can also be combined further.
What to do:
- Automatically pre-fill known information (e.g., from UAE Pass or past records).
- Allow users to review and confirm rather than re-enter.
- Personalise the experience of the service based on any useful metric (e.g., gender, age, residential status, number of dependents, expiry date of an ID, other internal data)
- Find ways where the user needs to enter less information
Visual Hierarchy Matters
When everything looks important, nothing is! So design your interface to help the user focus on what is important.
What to do:
- Highlight only the most critical actions and information.
- Use whitespace to separate sections and reduce visual noise.
- Follow strong visual hierarchy with clear headings, icons, and step indicators.
Save Progress Automatically
Users might get interrupted and return later. They may reach a point in the service where they realise they need to get a certain document that they current do not have. It would be very frustrating to restart everything from scratch.
What to do:
- Allow users to save and return without losing progress.
- Show progress indicators (e.g., "Step 2 of 5") and provide a summary before submission.
Design for Life Contexts
Users aren't applying for services in ideal, quiet conditions. The purpose of this article is to highlight that cognitive load needs to be understood. Assume that the user is quite stressed while applying for a service.
What to do:
- Consider emotional states (stress, urgency) and design for clarity and calm.
- Avoid timers, popups, and sudden form resets.
- Pre-fill data.
- Do not ask for repeated information over and over again (e.g., Store the delivery address in an address book rather than asking the user to enter is again every time)
When a government service feels effortless, users walk away with more trust in the institution. Reducing cognitive load isn’t a bonus, it’s the foundation of digital public service that’s inclusive, respectful, and humane.
Measuring Success
Monitor these indicators of cognitive overload:
- Extended task completion times
- High error rates or failures
- Frequent help requests
- Process abandonment patterns
- Excessive scrolling or searching behavior
- Constant failure or rejection after multiple attempts of submission
Implementation Guidelines
Assessment Framework
- Break down processes into cognitive components
- Identify stress factors and user constraints
- Balance the three types of cognitive load
- Consider diverse cultural needs
Design Principles
- Minimize unnecessary complexity
- Reveal information strategically
- Provide help when and where needed
- Design to prevent errors
- Support different processing style
The Impact
Cognitive load optimization can improve:
- Task completion rates by 25-40%
- Completion time by 30-50%
- User satisfaction by 20-30%
- Error reduction by 40-70%
These improvements particularly benefit citizens with limited cognitive resources due to stress, language barriers, or unfamiliarity with government processes.
Conclusion
Cognitive Load Engineering shifts focus toward understanding and designing for human cognitive experience. In government contexts, where citizens often interact with services during stressful situations, reducing unnecessary cognitive burden becomes essential for equitable access.
By systematically reducing extraneous cognitive load and implementing stress-responsive design patterns, we can create government services that work with, rather than against, human cognitive capabilities. The goal is reimagining how government services can truly serve all citizens effectively.
