Menu

Individual skill

chunking

Use this skill whenever the user must hold a sequence of items in working memory — phone numbers, OTP codes, account IDs, address strings, multi-step instructions, long forms, navigation menus with many items. Trigger when designing OTP / verification UIs, formatting numeric strings, breaking long forms into sections, grouping nav items, or reviewing surfaces that "have too many things at once." Chunking is one of the foundational principles in 'Universal Principles of Design' (Lidwell, Holden, Butler 2003), grounded in Miller's classic working-memory research.

plugins/HDeibler/universal-design-principles/plugins/cognition-and-learnability-principles/skills/chunking/SKILL.md

Read pinned source

Source commit d780783eba4ecc7c8b9429f95c9362df95f07c61

What was checked

Matches the observed repository HEAD
Yes
Scanner rules are current
Yes
Repository scan complete
No
Skill scan complete
No
Observed behavior
Network or broad shell
Last checked
Nov 4, 2026

These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.

Install this skill

Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.

An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.

Repository context

Repository stars (not skill ratings)
1,532
Repository last updated
Nov 6, 2026
License
Apache-2.0

Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.

Files and excerpt

File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.

Browse files
Read excerpt

# Chunking

Chunking is the practice of grouping a long string of items into a smaller number of meaningful units, each containing a few items. The classic insight: working memory can hold only a handful of independent items, but each "item" can itself be a chunk containing several pieces. Phone numbers are easier to remember as `555-867-5309` (three chunks) than as `5558675309` (ten digits). The same principle applies broadly across UI design.

## Definition (in our own words)

Working memory is a small, short-lived store for the items the user is actively manipulating. Its capacity is roughly four to seven independent units. When information is presented as one long unbroken sequence, the user has to hold all of it as separate units and quickly hits the limit. When information is grouped into a few meaningful chunks, the same total content fits within the working-memory budget. Chunking is the design technique for fitting information to that budget.

## Origins and research lineage

- **George Miller**, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information." *Psychological Review*, 1956, vol. 63, p. 81–97. The foundational paper. Miller observed that across many tasks (recalling lists, distinguishing tones, judging quantities), people maxed out at about 7 ± 2 items. The paper introduced "chunk" as the unit of measurement: an item could itself be made up of smaller items, but it counted as one chunk if treated as a unit.
- **Nelson Cowan**, "The Magical Number Four in Short-Term Memory: A Reconsideration of Mental Storage Capacity." *Behavioral and Brain Sciences*, 2001, vol. 24, p. 87–114. Refined Miller's estimate downward. Cowan's analysis found that when chunks are *truly* independent (not aided by rehearsal or grouping), capacity is closer to 4 ± 1 than 7 ± 2. The "magical number" is now usually given as 4.
- **Alan Baddeley**, *Working Memory* (1986) and *Working Memory, Thought, and Action* (2007). The standard reference work on the structure and limits of working memory.
- **Lidwell, Holden & Butler** (2003) compactly summarized the design implications and warned about misapplication: chunking is for tasks involving *memory*, not for tasks involving *scanning* (like consulting a reference list).