cognitive-load-assessment

cognitive-load-assessment is a skill for Claude Code from Owl-Listener/inclusive-design-skills. It costs 85 tokens per session (598 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A method for measuring and reducing cognitive load, the mental effort required to understand and complete an interface or process.

In plain words
What is it for?
Reviewing multi-step flows, complex forms, dashboards, decision processes, and information-dense screens, then recommending clearer steps and labels.
Why use it?
It distinguishes necessary complexity from confusion added by poor design, helping people avoid overload and decision fatigue.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the cognitive-accessibility plugin — 10 skills shipped together

Good fit Reviewing multi-step flows, complex forms, dashboards, decision processes, and information-dense screens, then recommending clearer steps and labels.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add Owl-Listener/inclusive-design-skills --skill cognitive-load-assessment
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/inclusive-design-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install cognitive-accessibility, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 10 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for cognitive-load-assessment

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for cognitive-load-assessment

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/owl-listener/inclusive-design-skills/cognitive-load-assessment.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 85 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 598 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00085 $0.00598
Opus 5 $0.00043 $0.00299
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00120
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00060

Measured 12d ago against content hash 666c74971ba7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

cognitive-load-assessment scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 12d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

cognitive-accessibility/skills/cognitive-load-assessment/SKILL.md · 61 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 61 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Cognitive Load Assessment

Assess cognitive load across three dimensions and provide actionable recommendations to reduce unnecessary burden on users.

The Three Types of Cognitive Load

Intrinsic load — complexity inherent in the task itself. A tax return is intrinsically complex. You cannot simplify the tax code. Focus: break into manageable steps, provide context, explain terms.

Extraneous load — complexity added by the design, not the task. Confusing navigation, unclear labels, inconsistent patterns, visual clutter. Focus: eliminate ruthlessly. Every instance is a fixable design failure.

Germane load — effort invested in the actual task. This is the load you WANT. The user engaging with their real goal. Focus: maximise this by removing the other two.

Assessment Framework

For each screen or step, evaluate:

Dimension Low (good) Medium (review) High (redesign)
Decisions required 0–1 2–3 4+
Items to remember None 1–2 3+
New concepts to learn None 1 2+
Steps to complete 1–2 3–5 6+
Reading complexity Plain language Some jargon Dense/technical
Visual complexity Clean, focused Moderate Cluttered

If any dimension rates High, that screen needs redesign before launch.

How to Assess

  1. Walk through the flow as a user who is tired, stressed, and unfamiliar
  2. At each screen, count: decisions, things to remember, new concepts
  3. Note where you pause, re-read, or feel uncertain — those are load spikes
  4. Map the load type: is the difficulty intrinsic or extraneous?
  5. Recommend specific reductions for each extraneous load source

Reduction Strategies

  • Progressive disclosure: show only what the current step needs
  • Smart defaults: pre-select the most common option
  • Chunking: group into sets of 3–5 related items
  • Recognition over recall: show options, don't make users remember
  • Persistent context: show key selections throughout a flow
  • One primary action per screen: de-emphasise secondary actions

Read the full file on GitHub · 61 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 12d ago First seen · 61 lines · 85 tokens per session scan A 666c74971ba7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

cognitive-load-assessment is a skill published in the GitHub repository Owl-Listener/inclusive-design-skills (98 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 85 tokens to every session and 598 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

Art

Static visual content across 20+ formats — diagrams, mermaid, infographics, D3 dashboards, comics, icons, wallpaper — via Nano Banana Pro (default), Nano Banana, and Flux. USE WHEN art, illustration, diagram, flowchart, infographic, header image, blog social thumbnail, visualize, generate image, mermaid, architecture…

danielmiessler/LifeOS · 124 tokens

Webdesign

Design and integrate web interfaces via three paths: DirectDesign (write design inline with Anthropic frontend-design philosophy — the default workhorse), native /design + /design-sync Claude Code commands (preferred for code integration and design-system sync), or ClaudeDesign (drive claude.ai/design through…

danielmiessler/LifeOS · 134 tokens

ApertureOscillation

3-pass scope oscillation that holds a question constant while shifting zoom — narrow/tactical, wide/strategic, then synthesis — to surface design tensions, scope recommendations, and coherence assessments invisible at any single zoom level. USE WHEN aperture oscillation, oscillate scope, zoom in and out, tactical vs…

danielmiessler/LifeOS · 102 tokens

Tldraw

Read, create, and edit tldraw .tldr canvas files deterministically — sketch hand-drawn-register diagrams (boxes, arrows, sticky notes, frames, text) directly into a canvas file the user opens in any tldraw surface, and read a rough canvas back as structured data to organize it. USE WHEN tldraw, .tldr file, whiteboard…

danielmiessler/LifeOS · 156 tokens

learn

Runs a six-phase research workflow that turns unfamiliar domains, source bundles, or collected material into publish-ready output. Use when users ask in any language to research, study, deep-dive, compile sources, synthesize unfamiliar material, or turn a source bundle into a coherent reference. Not for quick lookups…

tw93/Waza · 68 tokens

build-product-and-tool-interfaces

A guide for designing and building complete interfaces for products and professional tools that people use repeatedly to change objects and reach checkable results. It covers workbenches, task workflows, editing tools, analysis tools, monitoring consoles, and file or asset processors.

EverMind-AI/Raven · 147 tokens