There is only one way to eat an elephant
One bite at a time
Why was Desmond Tutu teaching us how to eat elephants?
He was just explaining that we are totally capable of tackling big things as long as we focus on tackling it in smaller steps.
What is chunking?
Chunking is a psychological theory coined by George Miller in 1956, which explains the magical rule: 7 plus or minus 2. It proposes that the best way for human beings to process large, long-term amounts of information in chunks of 5 to 9.
Hold up! In contrast, short-term working memory holds 3–5 pieces of information at a time. Think about how you convey a phone number to a friend. You don’t read out the whole number at once!
The key thing to remember here is just the broader concept of chunking; break large amounts of information into smaller ‘chunks’.
Three ways to use chunking to solve design problems
- Structure large and complex content into smaller ‘chunks’.
- Limit the amount of options you give to users when interacting online.
- Split long user flows into a series of shorter user flows grouped in a way that makes the most sense.
And that’s how to eat an elephant!
