The 7 Heuristic Laws of UX

The Laws of #UX comprise a set of optimal guidelines for designers to contemplate while crafting userinter faces, offering a compilation of best practices to enhance the user experience.

1. Aesthetic-Usability Effect Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable. - The visual attractiveness of a design elicits a positive cognitive response, leading individuals to believe that the design is more effective. - - When a product or service boasts an aesthetically pleasing design, users tend to be more forgiving of minor usability issues. - A visually appealing design has the potential to camouflage usability problems, hindering their identification during usability testing. Historical Background

The aesthetic-usability effect was initially explored in the realm of human-computer interaction back in 1995. Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura, researchers at the Hitachi Design Center, conducted a study involving 26 variations of an ATM UI. The 252 participants in the study were tasked with evaluating each design for both ease of use and aesthetic appeal. The researchers discovered a stronger correlation between participants' ratings of aesthetic appeal and perceived ease of use, compared to the correlation between aesthetic appeal and actual ease of use. This led Kurosu and Kashimura to conclude that users are significantly swayed by the aesthetics of an interface, even when attempting to assess the underlying functionality of the system. 2. Fitts’s Law The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. - Touch targets need to be sufficiently large to enable accurate selection by users. - There should be appropriate spacing between touch targets. - Strategic placement of touch targets in interface areas facilitates easy acquisition. Historical Background

In 1954, psychologist Paul Fitts, while investigating the human motor system, demonstrated that the time taken to reach a target is influenced by the distance to it and is inversely related to its size. According to Fitts' law, rapid movements towards small targets result in higher error rates, emphasizing the trade-off between speed and accuracy. While various versions of Fitts' law exist, they all encapsulate this fundamental concept. Fitts' law has found extensive application in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. For instance, the practice of designing interactive buttons to be larger, especially on finger-operated mobile devices, is influenced by this law. Smaller buttons are more challenging (and time-consuming) to click. Similarly, minimizing the distance between a user's task or attention area and the relevant button contributes to efficient interaction. 3. Goal-Gradient Effect The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. - Users tend to work faster towards completing a task as they get closer to its conclusion. - Introducing artificial indicators of progress can enhance user motivation to finish a task successfully. - Providing a clear representation of progress serves as a motivational factor for users to complete tasks. Historical Background

The goal-gradient hypothesis, initially formulated by behaviorist Clark Hull in 1932, asserts that the inclination to approach a goal intensifies as one gets closer to achieving it. A classic experiment by Hull in 1934, using rats in a straight alley, demonstrated that the rats ran increasingly faster as they moved from the starting box towards the food. While extensively explored with animals, especially in studies by Anderson (1933) and Brown (1948), there is a relative lack of research on its implications for human behavior and decision-making. This aspect holds significance for understanding intertemporal consumer behavior in reward programs and various motivational systems, as noted in studies by Deighton (2000), Hsee, Yu, and Zhang (2003), Kivetz (2003), and Lal and Bell (2003). 4. Hick’s Law The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. - Reduce the number of choices when quick decision-making is essential to shorten decision time. - Divide intricate tasks into smaller steps to lessen cognitive burden. - Prevent overwhelming users by emphasizing suggested options. - Employ progressive onboarding to lessen cognitive load for new users. - Exercise caution to avoid oversimplifying to the extent of abstraction. Historical Background

Hick's Law, also known as the Hick-Hyman Law, is attributed to the collaborative efforts of British psychologist William Edmund Hick and American psychologist Ray Hyman. In 1952, they embarked on a study to investigate how the quantity of stimuli impacts an individual's reaction time to a specific stimulus. As anticipated, the greater the number of stimuli options, the more time it takes for the user to decide which one to engage with. Users confronted with a multitude of choices are compelled to invest time in interpretation and decision-making, adding an unwanted cognitive burden. 5. 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. - Users tend to apply expectations developed with one familiar product to another resembling it. - Utilizing established mental models allows the design of enhanced user experiences, enabling users to concentrate on tasks rather than learning new models. - When introducing changes, reduce disruption by allowing users to stick with a familiar version for a limited duration. Historical Background

Jakob's Law, attributed to Jakob Nielsen, a User Advocate and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group with Dr. Donald A. Norman (former VP of research at Apple Computer), was named after him. Dr. Nielsen initiated the 'discount usability engineering' movement, aiming for swift and cost-effective enhancements in user interfaces. He is credited with inventing various usability methods, including heuristic evaluation. 6. Miller’s Law The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory. - Avoid employing the "magical number seven" as a rationale for imposing unnecessary design restrictions. - Structure content into smaller segments to assist users in digesting, comprehending, and memorizing information more effectively. - Acknowledge that short-term memory capacity differs among individuals, influenced by their previous knowledge and the specific situational context. Historical Background

In 1956, George Miller postulated that both the span of immediate memory and absolute judgment were confined to approximately 7 pieces of information. He defined the primary unit of information as a bit, representing the data required to make a choice between two equally likely alternatives. Furthermore, he noted that 4 bits of information would involve a decision between 16 binary alternatives (resulting from 4 successive binary decisions). The threshold at which confusion leads to an incorrect judgment is termed channel capacity, signifying the quantity of bits that can be reliably transmitted through a channel within a specified time frame. 7. Parkinson’s Law Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent. - Align the time required to finish a task with users' anticipated expectations. - Enhancing the overall user experience involves decreasing the actual task duration to meet or exceed user expectations. - Utilize features like autofill to streamline the input of crucial information in forms, ensuring swift completion of actions such as purchases and bookings while preventing unnecessary task prolongation. Historical Background

Cyril Northcote Parkinson introduced this concept in the initial sentence of a witty essay published in The Economist in 1955. The essay, later included in the book "Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress" (published in London by John Murray in 1958), has since been republished online. Parkinson formulated this dictum based on his extensive experience in the British Civil Service. #UXDesign #HeuristicLaws #UserExperience #DesignPrinciples #Usability #HumanCenteredDesign #UXGuidelines #InteractionDesign #UserInterface #DesignHeuristics #UX #designers #userinterfaces, #bestpractices Sources: https://www.nngroup.com , https://lawsofux.com/fittss-law/ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law