Websites aren’t always easy to use. Web designers may completely avoid that problem with Hick’s Law.
This article was updated on May 25, 2024
In this article, weโve focused on how Hick’s Law applies to web design, but its principles are equally relevant in any context involving decision-making.
Itโs no secret that creating the optimal user experience for your website or in-store presentation is essential for increasing sales and conversions. The last thing you want is a website that frustrates users and causes them to bounce โ losing you opportunities to sell to potential customers who will be now hard to win back since their first impression has been set. As such, web designers have a considerable stake in determining whether or not that user experience will be smooth.
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.
Thankfully, web designers can apply a compelling principle called Hickโs Law to their designs to avoid unfavorable scenarios like that.
Table of Contents
What is Hick’s Law, the Hick’s Law formula, and reaction time?
If youโve heard of the phrase โK.I.S.S โ Keep it Simple and Straightforwardโ, then youโll already have a solid grasp of the underlying principle of what the Hick Hyman Law tries to achieve. However, Hickโs 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.
**Hickโs Law equation:**T=blog2โ(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.
Hick’s Law states that as options increase, the time taken to make a choice also increases, leading to potential information overload and poorer decision quality.
Letโs use a real-world example. If youโve ever visited the Cheesecake Factory, youโve probably noted how obscenely large the menu is. I meanโฆ seriously, that thing is enormous!
If itโs your first time visiting, according to Hickโs Law, itโll probably take a while to figure out what you want to eat if you go through the whole menu. Alternatively, youโll get tired of looking, spot something that looks good enough, and call it a day.
People behave very similarly when browsing websites. But instead of settling for one option, they’re more likely to bounce off and go to the next website if they can’t find what they need.
So, for web designers, applying this principle is essential for creating websites that provide a good user experience.
In general, we attempt to avoid giving customers too much to process by not providing them with many options. So, we use Hick’s Law to streamline our decision-making as much as possible.
The Science Behind Hickโs Law
Hickโs 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. Itโs like asking someone to pick the perfect candy from a giant jarโtheyโll 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 simpleโgive 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:
1. Decision Time Increases with Choices
Decision-making time increases with the number of possibilities. This connection is logarithmic; thus, decision time slows as choices rise. A result can be frustration and someone bouncing from your website.
2. What it means for User Experience (UX) Design
In user experience design, Hick’s Law is especially applicable since minimizing options improves decision-making and satisfaction for users. You may make things easier for users and save them time by simplifying menus, reducing the number of fields in forms, and creating tasks as simple as possible. Thus improving UX.
3. Balancing Choices and Usability
While limiting alternatives can help minimize decision time, ensuring consumers have enough options to find what they need is also critical. Finding the sweet spot between having too few options and having too many can significantly improve usability.
3. Real World Example Backed By Analytics
In web design, a dropdown menu overloaded with options can overwhelm users and slow down their decision-making. To ease this cognitive load, designers can group similar items or add a search feature within the menu.
When users struggle to make decisions or seem frustrated, it’s often a sign that Hickโs Law isn’t being applied effectively, or they may not fully understand what you’re offering.
To address these issues, analytics tools are crucial. They help measure and analyze user behavior, offering insights you wouldn’t otherwise have. Like a doctor diagnosing a patient, you need accurate data before making choices. A tool like HotJar, for instance, can provide valuable insights to guide improvements.
Symptoms that you are not applying Hick’s Law
- There are tons of views and little positive action/conversions. If your site is getting a significant number of visitors, but no one is taking any action and bouncing off, that can be a sign that your site may be too overwhelming. This also indicates poor website design, which typically goes hand-in-hand with a poor user experience.
- Low total page views. If you notice people arenโt visiting more than one page on your website, the navigation may be too complex, overwhelming, or poorly labeled.
- High abandonment on contact pages. When users navigate to the contact page and do not fill it out, itโs possible that the form has too many fields or seems like a chore to fill out. Also, check to make sure your forms are working correctly.
- They are spending too much time on your website without taking action. If a user lingers on your website but leaves without taking action, they might be interested but struggling to find what they need. To guide them, include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your site. However, be mindful not to overwhelm visitors with excessive pop-ups, as these can be more irritating than helpful. Subtle yet strategic CTAs can make a big difference in guiding users toward their next steps.
Hick’s Law in Web Design – Create a Better UX
If your website lacks any of the areas above โ donโt 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.
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.
Thatโs the power of Hickโs Law in action! Faster decision-making, less user frustration, and a better overall user experience. So, letโs get right into the nitty-gritty.
Applying Hick’s Law โ Remove, reduce, reuse to avoid overwhelming users!
According to Hickโs Law, reducing options is key to optimizing your websiteโs user experience. Start by analyzing your siteโs navigation and interface. Navigation is critical, so focus on whatโs 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 titlesโnames like โOur Tribeโ instead of โOur Teamโ may confuse users. Keep it simple.
Pro Tip: Simplification doesnโt mean stripping your site bare. We aim to streamline decision-making, not eliminate it. For example, nesting services under a โServicesโ dropdown reduces clutter without sacrificing usability.
Think about the context โ who is your end user?
Ultimately, the application depends on the design’s context and intention. Often, there are times when you canโt 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 smartphoneโs camera โ the number of options readily available to each will be wildly different.
Hickโs law doesnโt apply the same way to a photographerโs 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 wonโt need much besides the one button to snap their photo 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. Weโve already touched on this concept with a few examples, even if you didnโt 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, letโs 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 arenโt overwhelmed, while more advanced users can find the tools they need for creative control.
Now, letโs apply this idea to something you often see on websites: a contact form.
While itโs 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 theyโre invested, theyโre 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.
Create Sales Funnels 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 youโre looking for immediately.
Despite this, shopping on Amazon is incredibly easy. Of course, on their landing page, they will list deals or products they predict are trending โ 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 conditionโฆ, and so on and so forth. However, even those options have become second nature through excellent UX design.
Navigation and Information Architecture
Grouping related items is a key practice in both graphic design and web design. It reduces cognitive load and makes your website easier to scan, helping users quickly find what they need.
Mega menus are a perfect example of this.
For instance, when designing a grocery store site, youโd group chicken, beef, and pork under “Meat” and dairy products like milk and cheese under “Dairy.” This mirrors the layout of physical stores and makes navigation intuitive.
A strong visual hierarchy further helps users find key elements faster, ultimately reducing reaction time and increasing site efficiency.
Your website should consistently deliver the best user experience
Using Hickโs Law is essential for any website to deliver the best possible experience to its users. An optimized website following the principles of Hick’s Law can deliver several benefits for business owners โ from improved user experience and higher conversion rates to increased sales and search engine rankings.
By simplifying your websites and reducing the cognitive load on customers, business owners can create websites that are easy to use and engaging – keeping users coming back for more. Of course, applying these principles to your website is easier said than done. So, if your team needs help delivering an excellent user experience for your customers, Mighty Fine is ready to help.
