In the dynamic field of user experience (UX) design, it’s essential to keep up with the guiding principles and best practices that produce intuitive, effective, and captivating interfaces. One crucial set of rules is the laws of UX, it helps designers make decisions that enhance the overall user experience. By following these laws the interface becomes more intuitive thereby minimizing frustration and making users happy. Let’s explore some of the most important UX laws and provide actionable takeaways to help you improve your design skills.
UX Laws:
Following are the Laws of UX for enhanced User Experience
1. Hick’s Law:
Hick’s Law: “Time taken for a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices”
Google’s homepage in 1998 has many links and buttons making it hard and confusing to navigate but now the latest version is so simple and minimal which is easy to use and navigate.
2. Jacob’s Law:
Jacob’s Law: 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.
Similar patterns are used in ecommerce sites(like search bar at the top), checkout process on amazon, myntra etc, so that users can concentrate on the task but not on the new design.
3. Miller’s Law:
Miller’s Law: “The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory” which says that it’s difficult to memorize something which is large so we organize the content into smaller chunks to help users understand easily.
Registration form is organised into different sections like personal information, contact details etc which helps users understand easily.
4. Aesthetic – Usability Effect:
Aesthetic – Usability Effect: “Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable”
Spotify which is a music and podcasts streaming platform widely used by 500 million users through out the globe also follows this effect. It’s eye catchy colours as well as dark mode theme attracts huge user base.
5. Doherty Threshold:
“Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other”.
An animated progress bar is used in Canva to keep users attention whilst waiting for their designs to download, which varies in time depending on the content.
6. Zeigarnik Effect:
Zeigarnik Effect : “People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks”
Progress Indicators are used to show users their progress in completing a task or a process, you can create a sense of “incompleteness” that motivates them to reach the finish line.
7. Fitt’s law:
Fitt’s Law : “The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance and size of the target”
It is particularly important when designing buttons and other clickable on-screen elements. The larger UI components would helps users for easy accessibility and also the error rates go down as target sizes increases.
8. Law of Similarity:
“The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.”
You may notice some sites use the same colour for buttons and text links. This creates a relationship between these objects and teaches the user to associate this colour with interactivity.
Grasping and implementing these UX principles can greatly enhance the design process and boost user satisfaction. By concentrating on user perception and interaction with your designs, you can develop products that not only fulfill their needs but also bring them joy. Continuously experiment and refine your methods to create a superior user experience! We hope you found this edition valuable. Until next time, happy designing!
