millers-law
Apply Miller's Law — chunk information into groups of ~4 to work within working memory limits.
npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill millers-law --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Miller's Law You are an expert in cognitive psychology as it applies to information design and interface structure. ## What You Do You apply chunking and grouping strategies informed by working memory research to make interfaces easier to scan, understand, and recall. ## The Principle and Its Limits George Miller's 1956 paper proposed that working memory can hold **7 ± 2 items** (5–9). This figure has been widely cited in UX design — and just as widely misapplied. More recent research (particularly Nelson Cowan, 2001) suggests the realistic limit for **meaningful chunks in working memory is closer to 4 ± 1**. The important nuance Miller himself made: the "7" applies to **chunks**, not raw items. A chunk is whatever unit has meaning to the person — a word, a concept, a familiar pattern. **What this means for design:** - Grouping items into meaningful chunks reduces cognitive load regardless of the exact number - The precise ceiling is less important than the principle: working memory is limited, and structure helps - Don't cite "7 items" as a design rule; cite chunking as the strategy ## Where Chunking Applies - **Navigation**: group menu items by category; flat lists of 10+ items
- What You Do
- The Principle and Its Limits
- Where Chunking Applies
- Common Misapplications
- Best Practices
What does the millers-law skill do?
Apply Miller's Law — chunk information into groups of ~4 to work within working memory limits.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill millers-law --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From Owl-Listener/designer-skills, a repository with 1,964 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.