Laws Of UX out.txt

| I Jakob's Law Users spend most of their time on other sites, and they prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Key Takeaways Users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar product to another that appears similar. By leveraging exi...

| I Jakob's Law Users spend most of their time on other sites, and they prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Key Takeaways Users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar product to another that appears similar. By leveraging existing mental models, we can create superior user experiences in which the users can focus on their tasks rather than on learning new models.. When making changes, minimize mental model mismatches by empowering users to continue using a familiar version for a limited time. Overview There is something incredibly valuable to be found in familiarity. Familiarity helps the people interacting with a digital product or service know immediately how to use it, from interacting with the navigation to finding the content they need to processing the layout and visual cues on the page in order to understand the choices available to them. The cumulative effect of mental effort saved ensures a lower cognitive load. In other words, the less mental energy users have to spend learning an interface, the more they can dedicate to achieving their 81 LAWS OF UX Building upon existing mental models through the use of common co nents and interaction patterns to ensure familiarity is an effective way to duce people to new technology as well. Take, for example, Apple's Vision which makes use of components like sidebars, tabs, and search fields that pe recognize and already understand how to use (Figure 1-5). Content is pla inside "windows" that live in your space and feel like part of the surroundi The glass material that makes up windows provides contrast with the wo gives people more awareness of their surroundings, and adapts to different li ing conditions. The system provides controls to move, close, and resize window enabling users to place content comfortably in their physical environment. Figure 1-5 Apple's Vision Pro makes use of common components and interaction patterns (source: Apple, 2023) KOB'S LAW | 9 TECHNIQUE User Personas Have you ever heard another designer within your company or organization refer to "the user," but it wasn't quite clear who exactly this elusive person was? The process of design becomes more difficult when a design team lacks a clear definition of its target audience, leaving each designer to interpret it in their own way. User personas are a tool that helps solve this problem by framing design decisions based on real needs, not the generic needs of the undefined "user." These fictional representations of a specific subset of the target audience are based on aggregated data from real users of a product or service (Figure 1-6). Personas are intended to foster empathy and serve as memory aids. as well as to create a shared mental model of the traits, needs, motivations, and behaviors of a specific kind of user. The frame of reference that personas help to define is incredibly valuable for teams: it helps team members move away from self-referential thinking and focus on the needs and goals of the user, which is useful for prioritizing new features. INFO DETAILS INSIGHTS Bio Goals Mike Behavior Motivations "The Early Adopter" Details Age: 32 Occupation: IT Engineer Education: Bachelor's degree Marital status: Married Location: Chicago, IL Frustrations Tasks Figure 1-6. User persona example | 2 Fitts's Law The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. Key Takeaways. Touch targets should be large enough for users to accurately select them. Touch targets should have ample spacing between them. Touch targets should be placed in areas of an interface that allow them to be easily acquired. Overview Usability is a key aspect of good design. It implies ease of use, which means the interface should be easy for users to understand and navigate. Interaction should be painless and straightforward, requiring minimal effort. The time it takes for users to move to and engage with an interactive object is a critical metric. It's important that designers size and position interactive objects appropriately to ensure they are easily selectable and meet user expectations with regard to the selectable region-a challenge compounded by the differing precision of the range of input methods available today (mouse, finger, etc.) and the variable dexterity of users. To aid in this endeavor, we can apply Fitts's law, which states that the time it takes for a user to engage with an object is relative to its size and the distance 15 1 3 Miller's Law The average person can keep only 7 (+2) items in their working memory. Key Takeaways Organize content into smaller chunks to help users process. understand, and memorize easily. Remember that short-term memory capacity will vary per individual, based on their prior knowledge and situational context. Don't use the "magical number seven" to justify unnecessary design limitations. Overview It's likely that many designers will have heard of Miller's law, but there is also a high probability that their understanding of it is inaccurate. This commonly misunderstood heuristic has frequently been cited as justification for design decisions such as "the number of navigation items must be limited to no more than seven" and so forth. While there is value in limiting the number of options available to users (see Chapter 4, "Hick's Law"), it is misleading and inaccurate to attribute such dogma to Miller's law. In this chapter, we'll explore the origins of Miller's "magical number seven" and the real value Miller's law has to provide to UX designers. 29 | 4 Hick's Law The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices available. Key Takeaways Minimize choices when response times are critical to decrease decision time. Break complex tasks into smaller steps in order to decrease mental effort. Avoid overwhelming users by highlighting recommended options. Be careful not to simplify to the point of abstraction. Overview One of the primary functions we have as designers is to synthesize information and present it in a way that doesn't overwhelm the people who use the products and services we design. We do this because we understand, almost instinctively, that redundancy and excessiveness create confusion. This confusion is problematic when it comes to creating products and services that feel intuitive. Instead we should enable people to quickly and easily accomplish their goals. We risk causing confusion when we don't completely understand the goals and constraints of the people using the product or service. Ultimately, our objective is to understand what the user seeks to accomplish so that we can reduce or eliminate anything that doesn't contribute to them successfully achieving their 39 15 Postel's Law Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others. Key Takeaways Be empathetic to, flexible about, and tolerant of any of the various actions the user could take or any input they might provide. Anticipate virtually anything in terms of input, access, and capability while providing a reliable and accessible interface. The more we can anticipate and plan for in design, the more resilient the design will be..Accept variable input from users, translating that input to meet your requirements, defining boundaries for input, and providing clear feedback to each user. Overview Designing good user experiences means designing good human experiences. People don't behave like machines: we are sometimes inconsistent, frequently distracted, occasionally error-prone, and usually driven by emotion. We expect the products and services we interact with to intuitively understand us and be forgiving. We expect to feel in control at all times, and we're generally annoyed when asked to provide more information than is necessary. At the same time, the devices and software we use vary greatly in terms of feature support, capabilities, and form factors. To be capable of meeting users' expectations, the products 53 Peak-End Rule People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. Key Takeaways Pay close attention to the most intense points and the final moments (the "end") of the user journey. Identify the moments when your product is most helpful, valuable. or entertaining and design to delight the end user. Remember that people recall negative experiences more vividly than positive ones. Overview An interesting thing happens when we recollect a past event. Instead of consid ering the entire duration of the experience, we tend to focus on an emotional peak and on the end, regardless of whether those moments were positive or negative. In other words, we remember each of our life experiences as a series of representative snapshots rather than a comprehensive timeline of events. Our feelings during the most emotionally intense moments and at the end are averaged in our minds and heavily influence how we recall the overall experience to determine whether we'd be willing to do it again or recommend it to others. This observation, known as the peak- end rule, strongly suggests we should pay close 65 | 7 Aesthetic-Usability Effect Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that's more usable. Key Takeaways Aesthetically pleasing design creates a positive response in people's brains and leads them to believe the design actually works better. People are more tolerant of minor usability issues when the design of a product or service is aesthetically pleasing. Visually pleasing design can mask usability problems and prevent issues from being discovered during usability testing. Overview As designers, we understand that our work is about more than just how some thing looks; it's also about how it works. That's not to say good design can't also be attractive design. In fact, an aesthetically pleasing design can influence usability. Not only does it create a positive emotional response, but it also enhances our cognitive abilities, increases the perception of usability, and extends credibility. In other words, an aesthetically pleasing design creates a positive response in 79 | 8 Von Restorff Effect When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered. Key Takeaways Make important information or key actions visually distinctive. Use restraint when placing emphasis on visual elements to avoid them competing with one another and to ensure salient items don't get mistakenly identified as ads. Don't exclude users with a color vision deficiency or low vision by relying exclusively on color to communicate contrast. Carefully consider users with motion sensitivity when employing motion to communicate contrast. Overview Millions of years of evolution have given humans an incredibly sophisticated system of vision and cognitive processing. We can identify objects in fractions of a second, we possess superior pattern processing capabilities in comparison to other living things, and we have an innate ability to spot small differences in objects. These traits have proven valuable for the survival of our species, and 1 Mark P. Mattson, "Superior Pattern Processing is the Essence of the Evolved Human Brain Frontiers in Neuroscience 8, no. 8 (en 93 19 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 that cannot be reduced. Key Takeaways All processes have a core of complexity that cannot be designed away and therefore must be assumed by either the system or the user. Ensure as much as possible of the burden is lifted from users by dealing with inherent complexity during design and development. Take care not to simplify interfaces to the point of abstraction. Overview Who should bear the burden of complexity within an application or a process- the user, or the designers and developers? This is a fundamental question when considering the design of user interfaces and, more broadly, how humans interact with technology. A key objective for designers is to reduce complexity for the people who use the products and services we help to build, yet there is some inherent complexity in every process. Inevitably, we reach a point at which complexity cannot be reduced any further but can only be transferred from one place to another. At this point, it finds its way either into the user interface or into the processes and workflows of designers and developers. 107 | IO Doherty Threshold Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (