If you’re familiar with usability, psychology, or memory research, you’ve probably heard
the phrase ”the magical number seven, plus or minus two.” This refers, actually, to what
I would call an urban legend: George A. Miller (1956) wrote a research paper showing
that people can remember from five to nine (seven plus or minus two) things, and that
people can process seven plus or minus two pieces of information at a time. So you
should only put five to nine items on a menu, or have five to nine tabs on a screen.
Have you heard that story? Well, it’s not quite accurate.