Just Enough Details

An analog clock is easier on the mind than a digital clock. I am referring here to the way time is displayed, not to the internals of the clock.

Analog clocks display current time in a graphical representation. It has moving hands, it paints a picture. A digital clock displays the current time in a textual representation, its a little information dump.

Each time we look up time in a digital clock there is a tiny bit of cognitive load to parse that text, and further more load to make sense of that information. Digital clock gives us seemingly accurate time, most likely we don’t need that accuracy.

With an analog clock there is a picture to be seen, there is no text to parse. Our mind can easily relate a picture to our sense of time. With some repetition its easier and easier for the mind to make sense of these pictures further reducing cognitive load. This comes at the cost of doing away with a little accuracy. That’s good enough for daily life.

There is a saying:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It applies here as well.