Redesigning for Cognitive Ease
summary
After surgery-induced cognitive impairment the presenter measures concrete problems and solutions: one in four Americans report a disability (about 26%) and 10.8% report serious cognitive difficulties. Practical fixes include using 120% zoom and reader mode for readability, switching to CSS Grid/relative units and container queries, honoring prefers-reduced-motion, and replacing a hamburger icon with the word menu (text-only button shows best conversion). Implemented changes include JavaScript that surfaces a global error plus per-field red borders for forms and a CodePen with working examples — these reduce extraneous cognitive load.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 3:01Cognitive disabilities on the web
- 9:53Personal online challenges
- 18:58Understanding cognitive load
- 22:14Reducing cognitive load with HTML
- 27:41Modern CSS for flexibility
- 32:00Say it twice technique
- 35:44Quick upgrades and recap
- 41:41Q&A session
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50mpresentation