Laws of UX

Question	Answer
Aesthetic Usability Effect	Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable.
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.
Fitts’s Law	The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target Touch targets should be large enough for users to both discern what it is and to accurately select them
Hick’s Law	The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. Simplify choices for the user by breaking down complex tasks into smaller steps Avoid overwhelming users by highlighting recommended options. Use progressive onboarding to minimize cognitive load for new users.
Law of Common Region	Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.
Law of Prägnanz	People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible, because it is the interpretation that requires the least cognitive effort of us in complex shapes because it prevents us from becoming overwhelmed with information. Research confirms that people are better able to visually process and remember simple figures than complex figures.
Law of Proximity	Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together. Proximity helps to establish a relationship with nearby objects.
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. Ensure that links and navigation systems are visually differentiated from normal text elements, and are consistently styled.
Law of Uniform Connectedness	Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection. Group functions of a similar nature so they are visually connected via colors, lines, frames, or other shapes.
Miller’s Law	The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory. Chunking is an effective method of presenting groups of content in a manageable way. Organize content in groups of 5-9 items at a time
Occam’s Razor	Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Analyze each element and remove as many as possible, without compromising the overall function.
Pareto Principle	roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
Parkinson’s Law	Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent.
Peak-End Rule	People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than the total sum or average of every moment of the experience Identify the moments when your product is most helpful, valuable, or entertaining and design to make those moments even better
Postel’s Law	Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send. Be empathetic, flexible, and tolerant to any number of actions the user could possibly take. This means accepting variable input from users, translating input to meet the requirements, defining boundaries for input, and providing clear feedback to the user.
Serial Position Effect	Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series. Placing the least important items in the middle of lists can be helpful because these items tend to be stored less frequently in long-term and working memory.
Tesler’s Law	Tesler's Law, also known as The Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that for any system there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced.
Von Restorff Effect	The Von Restorff effect, also known as The Isolation Effect, predicts that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered Make important information or key actions visually distinctive.
Zeigarnik Effect	People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. Use progress bars for complex tasks to visually indicate when a task is incomplete, and thus increase the likelihood it will be completed
Jakob’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.

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	Created by Jack Lovett-Earles over 4 years ago