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The Buzz
Tony Vincent
Tony Vincent

Let Your App Get Out of the Way

Two laptops showing an educational app before and after simplification, with a feature-heavy settings dashboard on the left and a clean multiple-choice interface on the right.


One thing I've learned from building a lot of vibe-coded apps and watching teachers and students use them is that adding features can sometimes make an app harder to use.


It's easy to ask AI to add a timer, settings, multiple modes, customization, scoring, and a few more options. Before long, a simple app can have a lot of buttons competing for attention.


I think this happens especially with single-page web apps. These apps are often contained in a single HTML file, but we sometimes interpret "single page" to mean that everything needs to fit on one screen. It doesn't. Your app can have additional screens, menus, dialogs, and steps. In fact, giving features their own space can make the main screen much easier to use.


Think about the thinking


There are two kinds of cognitive load worth considering. Intrinsic cognitive load is the thinking required by the task itself. If students are solving a puzzle, practicing vocabulary, or creating something, that thinking is part of the experience.


Extraneous cognitive load is the thinking caused by the way we've designed the app. If students have to figure out which of eight buttons starts the puzzle, that's thinking that has nothing to do with the puzzle.


When I'm building an app now, I try to ask: What does the user actually need to think about right now?


A few things help:


  • Don't cram everything onto one screen. If a feature isn't needed right away, consider putting it on another screen or behind a Settings button.
  • Use familiar patterns. Put buttons where users expect them. Use familiar icons for things like settings, back, delete, and menus. Label buttons clearly. Most apps work in similar ways for a reason: users already know how to use them.
  • Use sensible defaults. If most people will choose the same option, make that the default instead of making everyone choose.
  • Make the next step obvious. A user shouldn't need instructions to figure out what to do next.
  • Don't add a feature just because you can. Ask whether it actually improves the experience and whether the user needs to see it right now.


Give your app a User Experience (UX) check


Ask AI for help streamlining your app. Try giving your app this prompt:

## Context This is a classroom app for teachers and/or students. [Optional: Target audience is _______.] [Optional: The app's primary purpose is _______.] ## Role Act as a first-time user and an expert in UX and Cognitive Load Theory. Ignore any prior rationale for how the interface was designed. Evaluate it with fresh eyes. ## Task Review the interface for extraneous cognitive load: mental effort caused by the interface rather than by the task itself. Focus on anything that makes users think about HOW to operate the app instead of accomplishing its purpose. ## Look for 1. **Purpose:** Is the app's primary purpose immediately clear? 2. **Visual & Choice Hierarchy:** Are too many buttons, choices, settings, instructions, or other elements competing for attention? 3. **Familiar Conventions:** Do button placement, icons, labels, navigation, and interactions work the way users would expect? 4. **Next Step:** Is it immediately obvious what the user should do next? 5. **Unnecessary Decisions:** Are users being asked to make choices that could be handled with sensible defaults? 6. **Single-Screen Cramming:** Is useful functionality being crammed onto one screen simply because the app is a single-page web app? Distinguish between complexity that is necessary for the task itself (intrinsic cognitive load) and complexity caused by the interface (extraneous cognitive load). ## Output Provide the 3 to 5 highest-impact changes, ranked from most to least important. For each change, include: - **Problem:** What creates friction, confusion, or unnecessary thinking - **Why it adds load:** How the interface creates extraneous cognitive load - **Specific Fix:** A concrete change to the existing app Preserve useful functionality, but consider moving, grouping, hiding, or simplifying features when that would make the main experience easier to use. Do not recommend external libraries or a complete redesign unless absolutely necessary.

You're likely to get some good advice to help you improve its UX.


Put yourself in your users' shoes


Open your app and pretend you've never seen it before. Can you tell what to do within a few seconds?


Adding more instruction might just increase clutter and the extraneous cognitive load. You may just need fewer choices, a familiar interface pattern, a better default, or a feature moved somewhere else.


Good UX is really about how it feels to use your app. Whether the person using it is another teacher, a student, a parent, or you, you want the experience to feel clear, natural, and maybe even enjoyable. You want their mental energy focused on what the app helps them do, not on figuring out how the app works.

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