Cognitive Transport Cost

Where Your Flow Gets Hard

Your analytics show the drop-off. CBrowser shows you where to start looking.

8 cognitive layers. One friction score per step. And the layer that’s driving it.

Google Analytics Tells You WHAT Page Users Leave

CBrowser tells you WHY. It simulates real cognitive behavior across 8 measurable layers. Vague bounce rates become specific, fixable bottlenecks.

Readability Bottleneck

Your copy reads at a 12th-grade level. Half your audience reads at 8th grade. They leave before they understand your offer.

Decision Overload

Your pricing page has 47 decision points. Users with average patience quit after 12. The rest never click "Buy."

Motor Friction

Your form has 14 fields with 32x28px tap targets. On mobile, 23% of taps miss. Users retry twice, then leave.

How It Works

Point CBrowser at any URL

One tool call. No SDK, no tag manager, no tracking pixel. Pass a URL and an optional persona.

It measures 8 cognitive layers per persona

Saliency, Cognitive Load, Decision, Motor, Motor Procedure, Frustration, Readability, Reading Attention. Each scored on its own.

You get abandonment risk + exact bottleneck

One percentage showing how likely users are to drop off. Plus the exact layer causing it.

The 8 CTC Layers

Cognitive Transport Cost (CTC) breaks user experience into 8 sequential, measurable layers, in the order a person actually works through a page: notice, understand, choose, act, persist, read. When one layer spikes, you know exactly what to fix.

Saliency

Can they find the thing they came for?

What it feels like: Scanning a page and not seeing the button that is right there.

When it's the bottleneck: Raise contrast, size or isolation on the one element that matters most. Competing emphasis is the same as none.

Cognitive Load

Is there more on this page than they can hold at once?

What it feels like: Reading a page twice and still not knowing what it wants from you.

When it's the bottleneck: Cut, group, or defer. Familiarity is real capacity — a returning visitor genuinely pays less here.

Decision

Are there too many choices to pick between?

What it feels like: A nav with 180 links where every one of them might be the right one.

When it's the bottleneck: Reduce or rank the options. A default is cheaper than a choice, and a recommendation is cheaper than a list.

Motor

Can they physically hit the target?

What it feels like: Missing a small link twice before it takes.

When it's the bottleneck: Make targets bigger and further from other targets. Spacing helps accuracy even when size cannot change.

Motor Procedure

Can they get through the whole sequence, not just one click?

What it feels like: Knowing which button to press and still losing your place halfway through the form.

When it's the bottleneck: Shorten the sequence or make its state visible. Progress indicators pay for themselves here.

Frustration

How close are they to giving up?

What it feels like: The point where you decide the site is not worth it and close the tab.

When it's the bottleneck: Nothing here directly — this layer is where the others are paid for. Fix whichever layer is feeding it.

Readability

Can they decode the words on the page?

What it feels like: Re-reading a sentence because the type is too tight, too small, or too clever.

When it's the bottleneck: Simpler sentences, plainer vocabulary, larger and looser type.

Reading Attention

Can they hold the line long enough to finish?

What it feels like: Reaching the bottom of a paragraph with no idea what it said.

When it's the bottleneck: Break long passages, cut distractions near them, and put the important sentence first.

Example Output

One tool call returns the full 8-layer breakdown. You get an abandonment risk percentage and the specific bottleneck layer.

{
  "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
  "persona": "impatient-user",
  "totalCTC": 7.2,
  "abandonmentRisk": "73%",
  "bottleneck": "decision",
  "layers": {
    "saliency": {
      "score": 3.1,
      "status": "moderate"
    },
    "cognitiveLoad": {
      "score": 5.8,
      "status": "high"
    },
    "decision": {
      "score": 8.9,
      "status": "critical"
    },
    "motor": {
      "score": 2.4,
      "status": "low"
    },
    "motorProcedure": {
      "score": 3.6,
      "status": "moderate"
    },
    "frustration": {
      "score": 4.1,
      "status": "moderate"
    },
    "readability": {
      "score": 6.3,
      "status": "high"
    },
    "readingAttention": {
      "score": 4.8,
      "status": "moderate"
    }
  },
  "recommendation": "Reduce pricing tiers from 5 to 3. Remove feature comparison grid."
}

Tools Used

cognitive_effort

Measures the Cognitive Transport Cost (CTC) of one page. Returns a 8-layer breakdown with scores per layer.

cognitive_journey_init

Starts a multi-page cognitive journey. Tracks frustration, patience drain, and abandonment risk across each step.

site_cognitive_assessment

Full-site audit across multiple pages. Finds the highest-risk pages and ranks them by abandonment probability.

attention_analysis

Creates attention heatmaps showing where personas actually look vs. where you want them to look.

Find Out Why Users Leave

Run a cognitive audit on your highest-traffic page. Get the abandonment risk score and the exact bottleneck in under 60 seconds.

Try It Now

Related Capabilities

Test Like Real People

25 cognitive traits per persona

Readability

Content complexity analysis

Accessibility

WCAG checks plus disability-persona walkthroughs

Beat Competitors

Head-to-head UX comparison

All 130 Tools

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