100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

27 People Process Information Better in Bite-Sized Chunks

The brain can process only small amounts of information at a time—consciously, that is. (The estimate is that you handle 40 billion pieces of information every second, but only 40 of those make it to your conscious brain.) One mistake that designers sometimes make is giving too much information all at once.

Applying the Concept of Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure means providing only the information people need at the moment and letting them click to learn more about specific topics as they want or need to.

If you don’t use progressive disclosure, you will end up with very long pages of information that may overwhelm your reader.

Take, for example, this page from the United ...