Effective design of any sort, especially creative design for marketing, is an experience in psychology more than anything. Further, great web designers must be able to justify every element in a design. Even flourishes have a purpose. Much like the Bouba-Kiki Effect which is based on a combination of linguistics and psychology, Hick’s Law in web design is foundational to keeping design clean, choices clear, and users moving where and when we need them to move. (It’s also no stretch to say that this applies to copywriting and content strategy, too.)
Hick’s Law, also known as the Hick-Hyman Law, is a principle in psychology that describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision based on the number of possible choices. The law states that the more choices a person has, the longer it will take to make a decision. Formulated by British psychologist William Edmund Hick and American psychologist Ray Hyman in the 1950s, Hick’s Law mathematically predicts that decision time increases proportionally with the logarithm of the number of available options.
The mathematical expression of Hick’s Law is: T=blog2(n+1)T = b \log_2 (n+1)T=blog2(n+1) Where:
This formula highlights that decision-making time does not increase linearly with the number of choices but logarithmically, meaning that an increase in the number of choices results in a slower decision-making process.
Hick’s Law emerged from experiments conducted by Hick and Hyman in the mid-20th century. Their work aimed to understand how people process information and make decisions. In one experiment, participants were asked to respond to a light appearing in one of several positions. They found that as the number of potential positions increased, so did the response time, leading to the formulation of Hick’s Law. This relationship has since become a foundational concept in psychology, human-computer interaction, and design.
Though widely accepted for decades and supported in subsequent studies, why this rule is true has been poorly understood. But in 2018, a small Hick’s Law study that conducted brain MRIs of participants found clear indicators that the answer lies in the activity of our brains’ cognitive control network. This network is made up of our prefrontal cortex, the posterior parietal cortex, and the frontal eye fields. Do you need to know this to utilize Hick’s Law in design? Of course not, but it illustrates clearly that clear, seemingly simple web design is not a temporary trend. Instead, this is how our brains have worked for millennia.
Hick’s Law is a key principle in UX and web design, guiding how interfaces are structured to facilitate user decision-making and interaction.
1. Simplifying Navigation: Websites or applications that present users with too many navigation options can lead to decision paralysis, where users feel overwhelmed and unable to make a decision. By limiting the number of choices or organizing them into clear, hierarchical categories, designers can create a more intuitive and efficient user experience.
2. Prioritizing Information: Hick’s Law suggests that designers should prioritize content and actions to guide users toward key decisions. For example, a call-to-action (CTA) button should be prominent, with minimal distractions around it, ensuring that users can quickly identify and act on the desired choice.
3. Menu and Form Design: A well-designed menu follows Hick’s Law by presenting a limited number of options, making navigation easier and faster. Similarly, forms should include only necessary fields, reducing the time and effort needed to complete them. Grouping related fields and using progressive disclosure (revealing more options as needed) also align with Hick’s Law by minimizing cognitive load.
4. Visual Hierarchy: Hick’s Law applies to visual hierarchy in web design by emphasizing the most important elements on a page. By using size, color, and contrast to draw attention to key areas, designers can help users make quick decisions without being overwhelmed by too much information. We believe copywriting structure for web to also be important here as it impacts some design hierarchy elements.
5. Designing for Efficiency: In e-commerce, reducing the number of steps to purchase can enhance the user experience. Offering a streamlined checkout process, with fewer decisions required at each step, aligns with Hick’s Law by minimizing the time and effort needed to complete a transaction.
Hick’s Law is also relevant in wider marketing, particularly in crafting messages and strategies that prompt quick decision-making. Marketers use Hick’s Law to simplify the decision-making process for consumers. For example, when presenting product choices, it’s common to limit the number of options to avoid overwhelming potential buyers. Offering too many choices can lead to “analysis paralysis,” where consumers delay or avoid making a decision altogether. Clear and focused messaging that presents a single, compelling call-to-action is more effective than offering multiple options.
While Hick’s Law is a valuable principle in web design and marketing, it’s important to recognize its limitations. The law assumes that all choices are equally complex and that decision time is solely a function of the number of choices. However, real-world decisions are often influenced by other factors, such as the user’s familiarity with the options, the context in which the decision is made, and the user’s cognitive abilities.
Familiarity, with options for navigation, products, or other type of experience, is perhaps the easiest factor to take for granted. Jakob’s Law, by Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. proves how important familiarity can be to users.
Additionally, there are scenarios where offering more choices can be beneficial, such as in complex or highly personalized tasks where users appreciate having multiple options. Therefore, while Hick’s Law provides a useful framework, it should be applied with an understanding of the specific context and user needs.
By applying Hick’s Law thoughtfully, web designers and marketers can enhance user experiences and drive more effective interactions, leading to improved satisfaction and conversion rates.
