There are lots of laws, principles, and best practices in UX design-heaps, which may spin your head. In this post, I will share the four most important laws of UX design that KL web designers need to know.
Fitts' Law
First of all, let’s talk about Fitts’ Law. Fitts’ Law states that the time for target acquisition is a function of distance to and size of the target itself.
The key words here are distance and size, which means if the user has to search for a button, call to action, or link, placement and size count.
Without considering Fitts’ Law, valuable content or calls to action can fall outside of a very accessible area from the user, or the button can go unnoticed even due to the small size.
Apply Fitts’ Law by making the touch targets large enough to tap or otherwise interact with, making the buttons or links well apart in order not to catch other clicks by accident.
These targets also need to be in highly accessible areas within your design so that they can easily be reached by users.
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Hick's Law
The second heuristic is Hick’s Law. It basically says that the time to decide is proportional to the number and difficulty of choices.
That is to say, the more choices, the more cognitive overload your user will experience. Too much choice can actually confuse the user.
Only show to the user the most important options. If it is of great importance that decisions are made as fast as possible, make sure limited options are provided onscreen.
Where there is a complicated flow, break it up into smaller steps the user can manage. Another useful strategy may be to provide suggested options which the user will be guided toward to make, based on what you want.
It’s also useful for progressive disclosure of information or options in steps to users as they progress through an activity-really effective in onboarding and checkout experiences.
Jacob's Law
Jacob’s Law: It states that users use other Websites a lot more than yours; therefore, they like your site to work the same way other stuff they already know does.
If you’re trying to do something that other Selangor web designers are also trying to do, then there’s no need to reinvent navigation systems. Instead, rely on well-established UX and UI patterns that users already know.
This will save the users from some hassle. Also, don’t introduce new mental models of navigation or screen transitions-invoke old structures and flows that people are used to.
If you need to, try breaking it as little as possible to avoid confusing them.
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Miller's Law
Finally, there is Miller’s Law, which says that the average human can store only seven (plus or minus two) items in working memory.
When presented with more than seven choices, the human brain begins forgetting some of them. It’s a good point at which to question either content or business strategy-is the user really required to choose from 50 items at one time?
Apply Miller’s Law by categorizing and subcategorizing items in your design, breaking items down further when required.
You don’t need to get to that magic number of seven items, and fewer is better. Avoid screen clutter showing information that’s not needed, and try to present the fewest amount of options as possible for a much clearer user experience.
There you have it-those were the four most important laws of UX design for web design. To some of you Penang website designers, you may be wondering what other laws or best practices exist, these are what I find most crucial.
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