Free, 10 laws, in the order a click happens

Laws of UX

Most lists of UX laws are alphabetical. This one follows a single click: people see the screen, choose what to do, move to it, and keep going until they finish. Each law has its own article, and the newest ones have diagrams you can play with.

Step 1 Seeing the screen

Before anyone reads a word, the eye has already grouped the screen and judged it.

  • Law of Prägnanz

    People see the simplest shape that fits, so a screen gets read the simple way, whether or not that is what you meant.

  • Aesthetic-usability effect

    People expect a good-looking product to work better, and forgive it more, so looks change how usable it seems.

Step 2 Choosing what to do

Every click starts with a choice. These shape how long it takes and which option wins.

  • Hick's law

    The time to choose grows with the number of options, but slowly, as long as people already know the options.

  • Recognition over recall

    Spotting an option is easier than remembering it, so visible choices beat ones people must type from memory.

  • Chunking

    People hold only a few groups in mind at once, so information split into chunks is easier to take in.

  • Satisficing

    People pick the first option that is good enough, not the best one, so the first good option on screen wins.

Step 3 Moving to the target

Once people know what they want, they still have to reach it with a pointer or a thumb.

  • Fitts's law

    Big, close targets are faster to hit, and on a desktop the edges of the screen are the easiest of all.

Step 4 Keeping going

Whether people finish, and how they remember it afterwards.

  • Goal-gradient effect

    People speed up as a goal gets close, so real progress shown on screen helps them finish.

  • Peak-end rule

    People judge an experience by its worst moment and its end, so fix the low point and finish well.

Step 5 Planning the work

One rule for the team, not the user: where effort pays off.

  • The 80/20 rule

    A small share of features usually carries most of the use, so find that share and make it excellent.

Also worth knowing

Many of the shortcuts behind these laws are cognitive biases. The cognitive bias map sorts them by who has them, you or your users. For the visual side, see the Gestalt principles and the principles of design.

Frequently asked questions

What are the laws of UX?

They are rules of thumb, many from psychology experiments, that predict how people use interfaces: how they see a screen, choose an option, reach a target and keep going toward a goal.

Are the laws of UX real laws?

They are models, not laws of nature. Each one holds under certain conditions. Hick’s law needs options people already know, and Fitts’s law needs a clear target. Read each one with its limits in mind.

Which law of UX matters most?

For most screens, Fitts’s law and Hick’s law, because nearly every click is a choice followed by a move. The goal-gradient effect matters most for anything people have to finish, like sign-up or onboarding.

Who collected the laws of UX?

The designer Jon Yablonski gathered many of them under the name Laws of UX, in a website and a 2020 book. The laws themselves come from older research, such as Paul Fitts in 1954 and William Hick in 1952.