10 laws of UX

Since good design aims to be as user-centric as possible, the laws of UX mostly look at a user’s psychology. It considers how they navigate a space, and how they find and use information to make decisions and meet their needs, and uses this information to create guidelines which when followed, pose designed products for success among their users.

Lawsofux.com defines the Laws of UX as “a collection of best practices that designers can consider when building user interfaces”. Here are 10 of the many laws of UX that guide designers toward making user-centric products:

Jakob's law

This heuristic law, coined by Jakob Nielson, states that “Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.” A good design will incorporate models that their target user is already familiar with, to make it seamless for the user to use the new product without having to learn from scratch.

Hicks law

This is another heuristic law that says “The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.” The more choices and options you give a user, the more time it would take for them to think about their next step. It is advisable not to overwhelm users, and to minimize the number of options to those that are most relevant to the task.

Miller’s law

A third heuristic law is Miller’s law which says “The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.” In keeping with minimizing complexities, this law gives us a tangible number of factors to introduce to a user at a given time, to optimize their actions on the product. Organizing information in small groups helps with memory retention.

Occam's Razor

This principle states that “Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” Users are likely to gravitate towards options and choices that require them to make the least amount of assumptions. Slice off as many complications as possible without cutting off relevant functions and information.

Tesler’s law

This principle is also known as The Law of Conservation of Complexity and is a helpful boundary to Occam’s Razor. It states that “For any system, there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced.” As we reduce complexity as much as possible, we must also remember that for some needs and functions, the removal of key elements will render the entire need/function moot. Essential elements in design need not be cut.

Pareto principle

This principle states, “For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Users always have various needs, wants, requirements and complaints about a product, and this can pull designers in different directions. It is important to focus the majority of design efforts on the top 20% of features and functions that affect the users the most.

Law of common region

This UX law is focused on gestalt and demonstrates that “Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.” Just as we group nationalities of people by the boundaries of their land, elements are assumed to be related to each other once they remain in a common boundary. This law can help to visually categorize rather than define the categorization in words.

Law of similarity

This gestalt UX law proves that “The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.” Designers can use spacing, similar colors, similar shapes, etc to create effects of unity or a new image, by using this law in design.

Peak-end rule

The peak-end rule is a cognitive bias that demonstrates that “People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and its end, rather than the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.” In design, having clear-cut user journeys and user flows helps to map out where these peaks and ends are, and optimize them for great experiences.

Zeigarnik effect

Another cognitive bias displayed is this UX law which shows that “People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.” We are likely to remember the areas of waiting or getting stuck, more than the areas which complete tasks. For tasks where we want to encourage completion, it is advisable to show progress toward the end goal and/or the number of additional steps toward the end. This motivates users to complete the tasks.

(images from lawsofux.com)