UX Design Laws: Principles of User Experience Design

UX Design Laws

• User experience (UX) is the overall experience a person has when interacting with a product or service, encompassing everything from usability to emotions and attitudes.
• UX laws are a set of principles that guide the design of user experiences, ensuring digital products and services are intuitive, easy to use, and meet user needs.

Hick's Law

• States that the time it takes for a person to make a decision increases with the number of options available.
• Too many choices can lead to frustration or indecision, and designers can reduce cognitive load by simplifying interfaces and minimizing options.
• The more options presented, the longer it takes to make a decision, as the brain has to process each option.
• Implications for website design: simplifying design can make it easier for users to navigate and find information.

The Law of Fitts

• States that the time it takes to move a pointer to a target depends on the size of the target and the distance to it.
• Larger targets that are closer to the user are easier to click on than smaller targets that are farther away.
• Movement time is influenced by the distance between the starting point and the target point, as well as the target size.
• The Fitts' Law equation describes the relationship between movement time, distance, and target size: MT = a + b log2(2D/W).

Jakob's Law

• States that users spend most of their time using other websites or applications, and expect your website or application to work the same way.
• Users expect consistency in design patterns and user interface elements, and deviation from established conventions can lead to confusion.
• Consistency is key, including consistent navigation, labeling, and design patterns.
• User testing is essential to ensure that design meets user expectations and is easy to use.

Miller's Law

• States that the average person can hold only 7 plus or minus 2 pieces of information in their working memory at any given time.
• Designers should limit the number of items presented to the user to no more than 7, in order to avoid overwhelming the user's working memory.
• Implications for navigation menus, forms, and chunking: grouping information into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Postel's Law

• States that "be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept".
• Being conservative in sending data means conforming to established standards and protocols.
• Being liberal in accepting data means being flexible in interpreting and handling variations in communication.

Gestalt Principles

• Describe how humans perceive visual elements and group them together.
• Objects that are close to each other are perceived as related.
• Implications for UX design: grouping related items together visually, such as navigation items and form fields.
• Six laws of Gestalt principles:
  • Law of Proximity: Elements that are close together are perceived as a group.
  • Law of Similarity: Elements that are similar in appearance are perceived as a group.
  • Law of Closure: Our brains fill in missing gaps to create a complete image or object.
  • Law of Continuity: Elements that are arranged in a smooth, continuous line or curve are perceived as a group.
  • Law of Figure-Ground: Our brains separate visual information into a foreground and a background.
  • Law of Symmetry: Our brains perceive symmetrical objects as complete figures.