Hick’s Law Applies to Just About Everything
This article was updated on May 25, 2024
In this article, we’ve focused on how Hick’s Law applies to web design, but the deeper takeaway is about design decisions: anytime you present options, you’re shaping how quickly and confidently someone can understand your intent and move forward.
We use web design as the lens here because it packs so many decision points into one place: navigation, hierarchy, layout, and the constant push-and-pull between text, visuals, and calls to action.Users may be prompted to pause and consider their options before proceeding due to competing visual styles, abundance of text, or a mega navigation bar that muddles priorities.
Hick’s Law is basically the reminder to step back and ask: Do we really need all of this? Or are we making people work too hard just to move forward?
That same question carries into plenty of other design decisions, too. Product packaging, signage, menus, app interfaces – does the information clarify the path or clutter it.
British and American psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman, defined Hick’s Law, illustrating the relationship between the number of choices available and the time it takes for a person to make a decision. You want users to act quickly and without hesitation.
Thankfully, web designers can apply a compelling principle called Hick’s Law to their designs to avoid unfavorable scenarios like that.
Your Guide to Reducing Reaction Time
What is Hick’s Law and Equation?
If you’ve heard of the phrase “K.I.S.S — Keep it Simple and Straightforward”, then you’ll already have a solid grasp of the underlying principle of what the Hick Hyman Law tries to achieve. Hick’s Law states that the more options a person is given, the longer it takes them to decide.
Hick’s Law describes the relationship between the number of choices presented to a person and the time it takes for them to make a decision.
Eventually, too many choices will cause an information overload and paralyze the user from making a decision.
**Hick’s Law equation:**T=blog2(n+1)
- T is the decision time.
- b is a constant that represents the processing speed of the individual.
- n is the number of choices.
Talk about option overload – let’s use a real-world example. If you’ve ever visited the Cheesecake Factory, you’ve probably noted how obscenely large the menu is. I mean… seriously, that thing is enormous!
Hick’s Law says that if you look at the entire menu for the first time, it will take you a while to decide what you want to eat there. Alternatively, you’ll get tired of looking, spot something that looks good enough, and call it a day. I’ve only been once and I went with the good enough option.
People behave very similarly when browsing websites. But instead of settling for one option, they’re more likely to bounce and go to the next website if they can’t find what they need in a blink of an eye.
So, for web designers, applying this principle is essential for creating websites that provide a clear path to clarity.
In general, we attempt to avoid giving people too much to process by not providing them with a thousand options. So, we routinely use Hick’s Law philosophy to streamline our decision-making as much as possible.
The Science Behind Hick’s Law
Hick’s Law shows how our brains hit overload when faced with too many choices. The more options, the more our brains have to grind through pros and cons, dragging out decision time. It’s like asking someone to pick the perfect candy from a giant jar—they’ll hesitate as their mind races through every option.
The formula RT = a + b log2 (n) explains this: more choices equal slower reaction times, though the delay lessens as choices pile up. For web designers, the takeaway is simple—give users fewer, focused options to help them decide quickly without bogging them down in mental traffic. Your goal should be to get people where they need to go without barriers.
Key Points of Hick’s Law Related to Design:
1. More options don’t feel helpful — they feel heavy
Hick’s Law tells us that decision time increases as choices increase. Not always in a straight line, but enough to matter. The result isn’t just “slower clicks.” It’s hesitation, second-guessing, and the quiet moment where someone decides your design is too much work.
2. Choices aren’t only buttons — they’re anything competing for attention
In web design, the “choices” might be nav items, CTAs, filters, or form fields. In other design contexts, choices can be competing headlines, too many visual styles, cluttered layouts, dense copy, excessive features, or unclear labels. If users have to interpret what matters, you’ve already introduced friction.
3. The goal isn’t minimalism — it’s clarity through structure
Applying Hick’s Law doesn’t mean stripping everything down to nothing. It means creating a clear path: grouping related items, prioritizing what matters most, and making secondary options available without making them the main event. Great design often isn’t about what you add — it’s about what you organize.
4. Context changes the “right” number of options
A first-time user needs fewer decisions up front. A power user may want depth and control. The best designs account for both by keeping the surface simple, while still offering advanced options for people who need them.
5. The best optimization is often a deletion, not an addition
When something isn’t getting used, it’s not “harmless.” It’s noise. Noise slows decisions. Whether it’s a menu item, a feature, a label, or a visual element — if it competes for attention without delivering value, it’s raising cognitive load for everyone.
Hick’s Law – Create a Better UX
If your website lacks any of the areas above — don’t fret!
In many situations, even minor tweaks can significantly improve conversion rates. For example, Taskworld saw a 40% uptick in conversions after reducing the number of fields in its form from five to one.
This one is huge – Expedia found the power of this idea when they deleted an optional “Company” entry from their booking form. This one adjustment resulted in an extra $12 million in yearly income. Most users weren’t companies. The most effective optimization is often a deletion, not an addition.
According to study, people often form a first impression of a website within a relatively short timescale, often thought to be under 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds), which means they essentially select whether to stay or leave nearly immediately upon landing on the page.
Think about how you surf the web. Personally, I immediately bounce if a landing page is poorly designed or doesn’t meet my expectations at a glance. This also applies if there’s information overload.
That’s the power of Hick’s Law in action! Faster decision-making, less user frustration, and a better overall user experience. So, let’s get right into the nitty-gritty.
Case Studies: Applying Hick’s Law
Navigation and Information Architecture
According to Hick’s Law, reducing options is key to optimizing your website’s user experience. Start by analyzing your site’s navigation and interface. Navigation is critical, so focus on what’s essential and eliminate or combine unnecessary elements.
Use analytics tools to pinpoint frequently used features. Remove or rework those rarely used.
Also, avoid quirky menu titles—names like “Our Tribe” instead of “Our Team” may confuse users. K.I.S.S – Keep it simple and straight forward.
According to Hick’s Law, reducing options is one of the most effective ways to optimize your website’s user experience. Start by analyzing your site’s navigation and interface—because navigation is where decision fatigue shows up first. Focus on what’s essential, then eliminate, combine, or reorganize anything that’s unnecessary.
A big part of that reorganization is grouping related items, a core practice in both graphic design and web design. Smart grouping reduces cognitive load and makes your site easier to scan, so users can find what they need without stopping to think. Mega menus are a perfect example of this done well: instead of throwing every option at users at once, you cluster choices into clear categories. On a grocery store site, for example, you’d place chicken, beef, and pork under “Meat,” and milk and cheese under “Dairy.” It mirrors how people already understand physical stores—so the navigation feels intuitive instead of overwhelming.
To make sure you’re simplifying the right things, use analytics tools to identify which features and pages people actually use. Then remove, demote, or rework the items that rarely get clicked so they aren’t competing for attention. And don’t make users decode your labels—avoid quirky menu titles like “Our Tribe” when “Our Team” is instantly understood. The goal is clarity, not cleverness.
Finally, pair those choices with a strong visual hierarchy—clear headings, consistent styling, and obvious priority for the most important actions. When users can immediately tell where to look and what to do next, reaction time drops and friction disappears. The whole site feels faster and easier to use.
K.I.S.S: keep it simple and straightforward.
Cameras and Context — Who is Your End User?
Ultimately, the application depends on the design’s context and intention. Often, there are times when you can’t avoid having a variety of options.
For example, think of a professional photographer using a DSLR camera compared to the average person just using their smartphone’s camera — the number of options readily available to each will be wildly different.
Hick’s law doesn’t apply the same way to a pro photographer’s camera. Why? Because they’re usually already a power user who is deeply familiar with the interface. For pro photographers, having all the options and settings to manually adjust the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation, etc., is crucial to nailing the shot precisely to their specifications.
On the other hand, the average person won’t need much besides the one button to photos using their smartphone. Your end user should always influence how you apply Hick’s Law to your designs to deliver the best user experience.
Use Progressive Disclosure
Progressive disclosure is simply about revealing options on a “need-to-know” basis. We’ve already touched on this concept with a few examples, even if you didn’t notice!
At its core, progressive disclosure is a design technique that delays presenting certain information until it becomes relevant to the user. To explain this further, let’s revisit the phone camera metaphor.
As mentioned earlier, most users only want to press a button to snap a picture. However, many modern phones now offer advanced settings through modes like Pro Mode, where users can access features similar to those on a DSLR camera. These settings, though, stay hidden unless the user actively seeks them out. This way, novice users aren’t overwhelmed, while more advanced users can find the tools they need for creative control.
Now, let’s apply this idea to something you often see on websites: a contact form.
While it’s possible to display all fields at once, a dense contact form can overwhelm users, making them less likely to complete it. As seen in our TaskWorld example, businesses often require more information than just an email address. A more effective approach is to use progressive disclosure by breaking the form into manageable steps. Instead of showing everything at once, reveal questions one at a time. This encourages users to start the form, and once they’re invested, they’re more likely to complete it.
Pro tip: Avoid creating too many stages of progression. Breaking things into steps will make it easier for users to begin, but avoid making users spend too long to get to what they’re looking for. Otherwise, you risk them becoming frustrated and leaving.
Creating a Sales Funnels The Amazon Way – Using Hick’s Law
Businesses might offer every service and the kitchen sink on a single page in an effort to meet the demands of every user. Not every customer will have the exact needs, and chances are they will bounce, especially when someone else can streamline the process and provide a better UX.
Speaking of A to Z, Amazon is one of the best examples of this approach. With their massive catalog of products, there is no possible way of reducing the total number of options needed or showing exactly what you’re looking for immediately. There’s a massive amount happening behind the scenes to make the experience feel effortless. When it’s done well, the navigation architecture disappears and users simply move through the experience without thinking.
Despite this, shopping on Amazon is incredibly easy. Of course, on their landing page, they will list deals or products they predict are trending — but finding precisely what you need is as simple as typing in the search bar up top. Afterward (and only after) are you presented with all of their more advanced options to filter your results down by price, rating, reviews, product condition and so on. However, even those options have become second nature through excellent UX design.
Closing: Clarity is a Design Advantage
Hick’s Law isn’t just a web design trick — it’s a reminder that every design decision is a decision you’re asking someone else to make. Whether it’s a website menu, a product label, a slide deck, an app interface, or a printed sign, your job is the same: reduce hesitation, guide attention, and make the next step feel obvious.
Websites just happen to be the most concentrated version of the problem. In one screen, you’re balancing navigation, hierarchy, layout, messaging, visuals, and calls to action — and users decide in a blink whether it feels clear or chaotic. When your experience is streamlined, users don’t just move faster; they trust faster.
If your site (or any customer-facing design) is trying to do everything at once, Hick’s Law gives you permission to step back and simplify with intention: prioritize what matters, group what belongs together, and keep advanced options available without making them everyone’s problem.
And if you want a second set of eyes on your navigation, messaging, or conversion flow, Mighty Fine Co. can help you reduce friction, tighten decision paths, and build an experience that feels effortless to use — not because it’s empty, but because it’s clear.
Got it — here’s an FAQ that’s framed as general design principles, using the camera analogy as the underlying logic, without making it “about cameras.”
FAQ: Applying Hick’s Law as a Design Principle
When is Hick’s Law most useful in design?
When the audience needs to understand something quickly and move forward without second-guessing. This includes first impressions, wayfinding, “pick one” decisions, and any moment where hesitation creates drop-off—websites, apps, signage, packaging, menus, forms, onboarding, and sales materials.
When is Hick’s Law less useful—or even harmful?
When the goal is exploration, comparison, or creative control. In those contexts, simplifying too aggressively can feel limiting or “dumbed down.” Think: professional tools, advanced dashboards, configurators, product research experiences, or any workflow where the user expects depth and wants to fine-tune outcomes.
Does Hick’s Law mean “fewer options is always better”?
Not exactly. The point isn’t minimalism—it’s clarity. Sometimes users need lots of options, but they don’t need them all at once. The goal is to reduce friction by organizing choices so the next step feels obvious.
How do you apply Hick’s Law without removing important functionality?
Use structure instead of subtraction:
- Group related items (categories, sections, clusters)
- Create hierarchy (primary vs secondary vs tertiary actions)
- Sequence decisions (one step at a time instead of everything upfront)
- Use progressive disclosure (advanced options available when needed)
What’s the design “rule of thumb” for how many options to show?
Show the most likely choices first, and make the rest easy to find. If every option is presented as equally important, users are forced to do the prioritizing for you—slowing them down and increasing drop-off.
How do you know if your design has too many choices?
Look for signs of decision friction:
- Users hesitate or take longer than expected to complete a task
- Navigation gets ignored or people keep backtracking
- Bounce rates increase on key entry pages
- People choose “good enough” options—or abandon entirely
- Feedback like “I can’t find what I need” or “this feels overwhelming”
What’s the simplest fix that usually improves clarity fast?
Label things plainly. Avoid clever naming that requires interpretation. “Our Team” beats “Our Tribe.” “Pricing” beats “Plans & Possibilities.” Clarity makes decisions faster.
How does the camera analogy translate into design principles?
Design should match user intent and expertise:
- If the user wants speed and simplicity, prioritize one clear action.
- If the user wants control and precision, provide depth—but organize it so it doesn’t overwhelm the first-time user.
In both cases, the principle is the same: present the right choices at the right time.
