Understanding the laws of UX design
Like any other field, there are certain laws and principles guiding User Experience (UX) design. These laws are guidelines and ideal best practices a designer should follow in creating user centered designs. There are 21 laws of UX designs and I will be sharing a few of them below.
1. Jakobs law
This law was founded by Jakob Nielson. It explains that users spend most of their time on other sites, and they expect your site to work alike. Designing according to existing mental models, using established conventions and patterns, familiar icons and symbols improves user experience as it helps to reduce friction and aid users navigation on your site. That is why many ecommerce site for example, have a similar layout and navigation structure.
2. Aesthetic Usability Effect
Aesthetics play an important role in shaping the user’s perception of a product. Users many times perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that is more usable. People are usually more geared towards visually appealing products. Paying attention to your colors, typography, images, white spacings, can give your design a better feel. The aim to is to create products that people love and offer value. Prioritize building products that are both visually pleasing and functional.
3. Goal gradient effect
People are more motivated to complete a task as they get closer to reaching the goal. It is important to let users know how much progress they have made or the steps left in completing a task. A great example is the progress bar in filling an online form, page indicators, etc. It helps users know all that is needed to be done or that is left in reaching task completion.
4. Hick’s Law
The time it takes to make a decision is proportional to the number and complexity of choices. When users have many choices to choose from, it slows their decision making and they are likely not going to complete the task. Too many options all at once can be overwhelming. Best to do, is to break the task into bits or phases to reduce cognitive load. Allowing users progress step by step leads to faster task completion rate and improves the overall user experience.
5. Fitt’s Law
The time required to move to a target is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. When designing, you need to put into consideration the target areas for your users, ensure all the elements you want them to click are easily accessible. Ensure they are large enough for them to see, find and select easily. Also, good contrast from the background so touch elements are easily noticed. Let there be feedbacks when interactive elements are clicked or tapped. This can help users understand that they have successfully clicked or tapped an element.
6. Law of Proximity
Objects that are close together are perceived as related. Putting items in close proximity establishes a relationship between them. If you want to create a design that is easy to understand and navigate, you need to group related elements together. This also helps the content to be more organized and users to understand them quicker. Have your elements properly grouped, separate items with good use of white spacing.
7. Tesler’s Law
For any system, there is a certain amount of complexity that can not be eliminated. By finding the right balance between simplicity and complexity, you can create designs that are easy to use, provide a great user experience. In a bid to reduce these frictions and present an easy to use design flow, do not take away the core features and simplify to the point of abstraction. That is why a good onboarding process is encouraged. You can also use info tips where necessary to aid users’ ease of navigation.
Thanks for reading up to this point. I do hope you found my article useful and insightful. Got any question or need more clarity on any? You can leave a comment.
