Hick’s Law
How Hick’s Law Can Simplify Your Designs and Boost User Experience?
In the ever-evolving world of design, simplicity is king. With users demanding more efficiency and ease, how do you balance complexity and usability? The answer lies in a fascinating principle known as Hick’s Law, a rule that every designer should understand and apply. Let’s break it down in an engaging and practical way, with plenty of examples and visual ideas to keep you hooked!
What is Hick’s Law?
Hick’s Law (or the Hick-Hyman Law) states that the time it takes for a person to make a decision increases with the number of choices they are presented. Essentially, more choices = slower decisions.
Think about it: when you’re staring at a restaurant menu with 100 options, it feels overwhelming, right? That’s Hick’s Law in action. The more options you’re given, the longer it takes to choose. In design, this means that the more choices or actions you give a user, the longer it will take them to figure out what to do next.
The Science Behind Hick’s Law
In 1952, psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman conducted experiments to understand how people make decisions when faced with multiple stimuli. They found that decision time increases logarithmically as the number of choices grows.
The takeaway? Presenting users with too many options creates cognitive overload. Reducing choices helps people make quicker, more confident decisions.
Visualize It: The Restaurant Menu Example
Picture this: You walk into a restaurant and see two different menus.
Menu 1 has three meal options: Salad, Pizza, or Burger.
Menu 2 has 30 meal options: 10 different types of salads, 10 pizzas, 10 burgers.
It’s likely that Menu 1 will make your decision faster and easier. Fewer options mean you can process them quicker, decide confidently, and move on. Menu 2, however, might make you pause, second-guess, and feel a bit of decision fatigue.
This same principle applies to your website, mobile app, or product design. If users are overwhelmed with too many choices, they’ll struggle to make decisions and may leave your site feeling frustrated.
Applying Hick’s Law to Design: 3 Practical Examples
Let’s take a look at three common design scenarios where Hick’s Law can help improve user experience.
1. Navigation Menus: Fewer Choices, Clearer Paths
Ever visited a website with an endless dropdown menu full of categories and subcategories? It's confusing and frustrating. Hick’s Law suggests that simplifying your navigation improves the user experience.
The goal is to give users fewer paths, reducing the time they take to decide where to go next. A simple navigation bar improves usability by guiding users quickly to the information or products they’re looking for.
2. Form Design: Break It Up
Forms are a big part of the user experience, whether it’s signing up for a service, making a purchase, or completing a survey. A form with too many fields on a single page overwhelms users and can lead to abandonment.
3. Landing Pages: Cut the Clutter
On landing pages, the goal is usually to get users to take one specific action (e.g., sign up, buy something, download a file). But when too many calls-to-action (CTAs) compete for attention, users get distracted and may do nothing at all.
Fewer options make the decision faster and clearer for users. Rather than being torn between too many buttons, they follow a straightforward path to conversion.
The Downsides of Too Few Choices
While Hick’s Law encourages reducing the number of choices, be cautious of going too far. Offering too few choices may leave users feeling like they don’t have enough options, especially if they expect variety. It’s about finding the right balance for your audience.
For example, on a TV remote, if there are several buttons it could be confusing but at the same time if there is just button without any information it could be really confusing for the user.
Using Hick’s Law with Progressive Disclosure
Another way to handle Hick’s Law effectively is by using progressive disclosure — a design technique where information is shown progressively as needed, rather than all at once. This can make complex processes feel simpler.
For instance, on an app’s settings page, you might show high-level options first, like “Profile Settings” or “Privacy.” When the user clicks on “Privacy,” it expands to show more specific settings (e.g., password, two-factor authentication).
This approach helps users stay focused by reducing initial cognitive load, while still offering deeper functionality for those who need it.
Conclusion: Simplifying Choice for Better UX
Hick’s Law is a powerful principle that reminds us to simplify choices to improve user decision-making and reduce cognitive overload. Whether it’s designing a navigation menu, a form, or a landing page, keeping the number of options manageable can dramatically improve usability and conversion rates.
The key takeaway? Less is more when it comes to giving users choices in your design. If users can make decisions quickly and confidently, they’ll have a much more positive experience on your site or app.
Call to Action: Now that you’ve learned about Hick’s Law, take a look at your current designs. Where can you simplify and reduce choices to improve user experience? Let’s start applying this principle today!
