In the UX design domain, we often talk about empathy and getting into the shoes of the users to truly connect to them. UX designers are more than just visual designers- they also design emotions, thoughts, and feelings. While it is a truly rewarding experience, it also brings about the challenges of working on non-quantifiable and fluctuating data. But understanding the basic UX laws can help UX designers to solve these challenges to a significant extent. 

The UX laws provide context to the designers regarding users' thoughts and behaviour. It helps designers identify the cognitive processes that users go through before taking action. Ready to look at some of the interesting laws? I promise you an enjoyable read, so let's begin! 

Jakob's Law

Also known as The Principle of Familiarity, this law was created by Jakob Neilson of the renowned Nielsen Norman Group. Jakob's law states that "users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites that they already know". The underlying principle of this law is to build a connection with the users through familiarity. Basically, it's all about not completely reinventing the wheel. 

I will give you a small example to make it clear. Suppose you are shopping online from a new website. You will have a predefined idea of how to complete a transaction- you will add products to the cart, proceed to checkout, give relevant information, and finalize the transaction. Now, suppose if this new website has completely changed the checkout process. The unfamiliarity is bound to make you feel uncomfortable, and you may probably abandon the shopping. 

This is what Jakob's Law implies. It does not mean that designers shouldn't do anything new or creative, but rather that creativity should not compromise familiarity. 

Hick's Law

Human behaviour is a mystery. We often talk about wanting a multitude of choices while making decisions, but when presented with many choices, we tend to get confused and unable to make efficient decisions quickly. Hick's law states that "the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices". In simpler words, the more choices a person gets, the longer they take to come to a decision. 

From a designer perspective, a big concern about providing users many choices is that they may end up getting so caught up and leaving the platform without taking any action - a challenge that is often witnessed in filter design. Inherently, users want to take quick actions and reach their goals in the shortest time. So, anything that comes as a distraction in that path will adversely impact the user experience. Ideally, a balance between usability and functionality has to be achieved to aid the best decision making. 

Miller's Law

It is an interesting law that gives good insights into the working memory of humans. And I am sure you have come across its application in your life many a time. Wondering where? Have you ever thought about why long numbers like phone numbers, credit card numbers, etc., are written in 3 or 4 sets/chunks rather than as a single number? Because it's easier for us to remember things that way. 

Try if you can recollect this number 1350758496 after reading once. Could you do it? Now, if you read it as 135-075-8496, you may be able to remember it easily. That's essentially what Miller's law is about. It states that "the average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory". 

Our brains find it easier to remember complex information when they are divided into chunks. By applying Miller's law in designs, it is possible to increase user engagement and guide users to goals more purposefully. 

Fitts's Law

Fitts's law states that "the time to acquire a target is the function of distance to and size of the target". In the context of digital solutions like websites and apps, we can define the call to action (CTA) buttons as the targets. It is the goal of these platforms to get the user to click on the CTA buttons. So, according to Fitts's law, when the target is within easy reach of the users and is big enough, there is a higher probability of receiving user clicks. 

For mobile devices, it is even more crucial to check that Fitts's law is applied to ensure a satisfactory user experience. Due to the limited screen space of mobile devices, designers may sometimes think of compromising on the button sizes. It may cause trouble to users to complete an action through tactile feedback, resulting in user attrition. 

Tesler's Law

Tesler's law was created by Larry Tester, a computer scientist renowned in the field of Human Machine Interaction. It states that "every action must have an inherent amount of irreducible complexity". Tesler stated that it is impossible to either remove or hide all the complexities involved in an application. Instead, what could be done is to handle these complexities thoughtfully. 

According to Telser, if an application is highly complex, the weight of it should be carried by the design and development team rather than by the users. Even if it means that the developers or designers have to spend more time writing complex codes or creating the simplest interfaces, it is worth the trade-off of providing the user with an enjoyable user experience. 

Serial Position Effect

Have you noticed that whenever you go through a sequence of information, you find it easier to remember the first and last parts compared to the information in the middle? Well, that is the serial position effect! It says that "users have a prosperity to best remember the first and last items in a series". 

For UX designers, this rule can come in handy while organizing content. Whatever information that is the most important can be placed in the first and last position of sequences, and less important ones can be placed in the middle. Designers can use this to encourage more user action on aspects that are most important to the particular client. When making any purchase online, you must have noticed that the top-selling or most popular are often placed in the first position. That's one of the common applications of the serial position effect!  

These are six important UX laws that can help in creating a good UX design. The key intention behind all these goals is to reduce the strain that a design will put on the users. When users are able to make decisions easily and navigate freely through a website or an app, they feel victorious and rewarded, which makes their experience memorable.