📄️ Conceptual Burden
This characteristic breaks down into three major considerations.
📄️ Invisible Links
An invisible link occurs when there is an unseen, yet critical, connection between two components within a system. This lack of visibility can significantly increase the cognitive load on a user, as they may not be aware of how changes in one area can unexpectedly influence another, and thus, if one abstraction in your software is altered by, or dependent on another. However, hidden dependencies are not inherently bad, and some software would become an unusable clutter were all dependencies to be visualised - indeed, for ease of use it might be desirable to only make dependencies visible on request, if ever; as with many of the aspects related to software design, a balance needs to be struck.
📄️ Premature Commitment
Premature Commitment refers to situations where a user is forced to make decisions without having all the necessary information at hand. This often leads to guesswork, which can be problematic if the system's constraints or dependencies are not yet fully understood by the user. This can disrupt the natural workflow, forcing users to backtrack and rework tasks once the correct information becomes available or once they realise that their initial assumptions were incorrect.
📄️ Realtime Review
There's more to this than just having a fast viewport!
📄️ Rigidity
Rigidity refers to the friction encountered when attempting to make changes. It is the effort required to perform what should ideally be a simple update or modification. High Rigidity can interrupt the flow of work, leading to increased cognitive strain as users must perform repetitive or complex tasks to progress in their work. This is particularly disruptive during explorative creative processes when quick iterations are needed.
📄️ Visibility
Visibility is the ease with which a user can access the necessary components or information within a system. High visibility reduces cognitive load by making information readily accessible without extensive navigation or memory recall.
📄️ The Remaining Dimensions
The remaining (non-core) dimensions are being written, and will be available here at a later date.