16 Laws of UX Design: Elevate Your Designs to the Next Level

It’s important to understand the potential of UX design. It is the foundation of creating user-friendly digital products that meet users’ expectations and enhance their overall experience. To achieve this, it’s important to be aware of the various laws of UX. These laws provide a framework for how users interact with digital interfaces and guide UX designers in creating interfaces that are intuitive and engaging. They help in understanding the aesthetic usability effect, the impact of ambiguous or complex images on the working memory, and the importance of well-placed visual elements. Moreover, they shed light on phenomena like the serial position effect and how users perceive similar elements.

These laws are necessary for any UX designer aiming to create interfaces that facilitate complete tasks, reduce cognitive load, and ultimately, enhance user satisfaction. Ready to enhance your designs? Let’s delve into the 16 Laws of UX to make user-friendly interfaces that make people happy.

What are the Laws of UX?

The laws of UX are fundamental principles that guide how users interact with digital platforms. These laws are based on cognitive science and human behavior, providing a roadmap for UX designers to create intuitive and engaging user interfaces. Here are the laws:

• Aesthetic Usability Effect
• The Doherty threshold
• Fitts’ Law of UX
• Hick-Hyman Law
• Jakob’s Law
• Law of Uniform Connectedness
• Prägnanz’s Law
• Miller’s Law
• Occam’s Razor
• Pareto Principle
• Peak-End Rule
• Postel’s Law or Robustness Principle
• Serial Position Effect
• Tesler’s Law
• Law of Magic
• Zeigarnik Effect

Understanding these laws allows designers to predict user behavior, minimize cognitive load, and create designs that align with users’ expectations. They also provide insights into how visual elements can be used effectively. Let’s explore the popular law of UX design here.

Aesthetic Usability Effect

The Aesthetic Usability Effect is one of the crucial laws of UX which suggests that users interact with an interface based on its aesthetic appeal. If an interface is visually appealing, users often perceive it as easier to use. This is because an attractive design can create a positive impression, leading users to be more forgiving of minor usability issues.

However, it’s important to note that while a pleasing design can enhance user experience, it cannot compensate for significant usability problems. Therefore, a UX designer should strive for a balance between aesthetics and usability when creating interfaces.

The Aesthetic Usability Effect highlights the importance of visual appeal in interface design, but it also emphasizes the need for effective functionality. The ultimate goal for any UX designer is to create interfaces that not only look good but also function well. This means reducing cognitive load, facilitating completed tasks, and meeting users’ expectations.

A visually appealing design can motivate users, but it should be complemented with a user-friendly functionality. A well-designed interface that adheres to the Aesthetic Usability Effect can lead to a positive user experience, combining both visual appeal and efficient functionality. 

The Doherty threshold

The Doherty Threshold is a principle in UX design that emphasizes the importance of system response speed. This principle suggests that user productivity is significantly influenced by how quickly a user interface responds to input. In essence, faster response times lead to more efficient task completion and overall better user experiences.

On the other hand, slow interfaces can have a negative impact on usability, leading to user dissatisfaction. Research conducted by Google supports this, suggesting that users are more likely to leave a platform if loading times increase. Therefore, to optimize user experiences, UX designers should aim for interface response times of around 0.4 seconds.

The Doherty Threshold underscores the importance of streamlining the interface and minimizing delays in response times. This is crucial for maintaining user engagement and satisfaction. It’s a vital aspect of designing interfaces that not only look good but also function well, reducing cognitive load and facilitating completed tasks.

Fitts’ Law of UX

Fitts’ Law of UX is a fundamental principle that focuses on the time it takes for users to interact with and understand an interface. It underscores the importance of designing user-friendly digital products that facilitate quick and efficient user responses. According to this law, poorly designed interfaces with small or hard-to-reach clickable elements can lead to slower user response times, creating a perception of complexity, and increasing the cognitive load.

To enhance user interaction and experience, UX designers should follow several guidelines. First, clickable elements should be sized appropriately. This means they should be large enough to be easily clicked – yet not so large that they dominate the interface. Second, these elements should be placed in accessible locations, where users can easily reach them. This reduces the cognitive effort required to interact with the interface and helps users complete tasks more efficiently.

Consistent design patterns are also crucial. They help users interact with the interface more intuitively, reducing the need for them to learn new patterns or layouts. This aligns with Fitts’ Law of UX, which emphasizes the importance of reducing the cognitive load for users.

Additionally, UX designers should use clear and concise language for instructions and calls to action. This helps users understand what is expected of them, reducing ambiguity and potential confusion.

Finally, UX designers should consider factors like visibility, size, distance, and menu choices when designing interfaces. These elements should align with Fitts’ Law, facilitating efficient user interaction and enhancing the overall user experience.

Adhering to Fitts’ Law of UX helps UX designers create interfaces that are user-friendly and intuitive. It guides them in avoiding the perception of complexity and in designing interfaces that facilitate efficient user interaction. This is crucial in the UX design process, as it helps in creating user-friendly digital products that meet users’ expectations and enhance their overall experience. 

Hick-Hyman Law

The Hick-Hyman Law is a fundamental principle in UX design that focuses on the decision-making process of users. According to this law, the more options and choices presented to users, the longer it takes for them to make a decision. This is particularly important when designing interfaces for processes with multiple steps, such as e-commerce transactions, where excessive options can overwhelm users and increase the cognitive load.

To enhance the overall user experience, UX designers should strive to simplify interfaces and reduce complexity. This can be achieved by breaking down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. For instance, instead of presenting all options at once, designers can guide users through a process in stages, thereby reducing the number of choices at any one step and making the process more manageable.

Furthermore, the Hick-Hyman Law also emphasizes the importance of continuously analyzing how users interact with interfaces. By monitoring user interactions, designers can identify areas where users may spend too much time or become confused. This provides valuable user insights that can be used to further refine and improve the interface design.

In essence, the Hick-Hyman Law is a crucial aspect of User-Centered Design. It guides UX designers in creating user-friendly digital products that meet users’ expectations and enhance their overall experience. By adhering to this law, designers can create interfaces that facilitate completed tasks, reduce cognitive effort, and ultimately, lead to a more efficient and satisfying user experience. 

Jakob’s Law

Jakob’s Law is a fundamental principle in UX design, named after the renowned usability consultant, Jakob Nielsen. This law emphasizes that users expect websites to function similarly to how other websites they’ve used. In other words, users interact with new interfaces based on their existing mental models formed from their experiences with other websites.

This law highlights the importance of designing interfaces that are consistent with users’ expectations, which can significantly reduce cognitive load. For instance, users typically associate certain colors with specific actions, such as red for stopping and green for proceeding. Meeting these common-sense expectations can enhance the usability of the interface and improve the overall user experience.

While it’s important for a UX designer to create unique and innovative designs, deviating too much from established conventions can lead to confusion and user frustration. Therefore, striking a balance between standing out and maintaining familiar interactions is crucial in UX design.

Adhering to Jakob’s Law can guide UX designers in leveraging existing mental models to create intuitive and user-focused experiences. This can result in user-friendly digital products that not only meet users’ expectations but also facilitate completed tasks with the least cognitive effort.

Jakob’s Law is an essential principle in the design process that underscores the importance of consistency and familiarity in creating interfaces. By understanding and applying this law, UX designers can create aesthetically pleasing designs that are also intuitive and easy to use, enhancing the overall user experience. 

Law of Uniform Connectedness

The Law of Uniform Connectedness is a fundamental principle in UX design that emphasizes the perception of visually connected elements. According to this law, elements that share visual similarities are perceived as being related or having similar purposes. This principle is crucial in creating user-friendly digital products as it helps reduce the mental effort required to understand and interact with an interface.

Following this law, UX designers should strive to maintain visual consistency among related elements. This can be achieved by grouping similar elements together or using consistent visual cues such as color, shape, or size. For instance, on an e-commerce website, all the product images might be of the same size and shape, indicating that they serve the same purpose – to showcase the products.

The Law of Uniform Connectedness also intersects with other UX laws such as the Law of Proximity and Fitts’s Law. The former suggests that elements that are close to each other are perceived as a group, while the latter focuses on the ease of interaction with elements based on their size and distance.

In essence, following the Law of Uniform Connectedness can lead to an aesthetically pleasing design where users focus on the important elements without being overwhelmed. It also ensures a smooth user journey, enhancing the overall user experience on websites, mobile apps, landing pages, and even simple forms.

Moreover, this law plays a significant role in usability testing, helping identify areas where users tend to get confused due to poorly defined boundaries among similar objects. By adhering to this law, designers can create interfaces that facilitate user control, reduce interrupted tasks, and ultimately, lead to a more satisfying user experience.

Prägnanz’s Law

Prägnanz’s Law is a fundamental principle in UX design that emphasizes the human tendency to perceive and interpret complex shapes as simpler ones. This law is rooted in the understanding that our eyes naturally seek simplicity to reduce mental effort.

In the context of UX design, this law suggests that using simple shapes in interface design can significantly enhance the user’s ability to understand the structure more easily. This is crucial in reducing the risk of information overload, a common issue in interfaces with complex elements.

By following Prägnanz’s Law, UX designers can create aesthetically pleasing designs that are also easy to comprehend. This can lead to a smoother user journey, reducing the number of interrupted tasks and enhancing the overall user experience.

This law also intersects with other UX laws such as the Law of Proximity and Fitts’s Law. The former suggests that elements close to each other are perceived as a group, while the latter focuses on the ease of interaction with elements based on their size and distance.

Moreover, Prägnanz’s Law plays a significant role in usability testing, helping to identify areas where users tend to get confused due to the presence of multiple similar objects or a poorly defined boundary among elements.

In essence, Prägnanz’s Law guides UX designers in creating user-friendly digital products that meet users’ expectations. It emphasizes the importance of simplicity and clarity in interface design, aiding the effective interpretation of ambiguous elements, and enhancing the overall user experience. Whether designing for websites, mobile apps, landing pages, or even simple forms, adhering to this law can lead to more intuitive and engaging user interfaces. 

Miller’s Law

Miller’s Law is a fundamental principle in UX design that focuses on the capacity of the working memory. According to this law, the human brain can hold about seven “chunks of information” at any given time. This understanding is crucial when designing interfaces, as it’s essential to avoid overloading users’ cognitive capacity and immediate memory.

When users encounter a new interface, a learning process begins as they understand how to use it. If the interface is complex or overloaded with information, it can lead to incomplete or interrupted tasks, increasing cognitive load and diminishing the overall user experience.

To avoid this, UX designers should prioritize the important elements in the interface. This ensures that users can focus their cognitive capacity, memory, and attention effectively. Furthermore, it’s essential to avoid presenting users with too many choices, complex thinking, unclear interactions, or clustered information.

Miller’s Law also suggests using formatting techniques to enhance user comprehension. For instance, breaking down large numbers into blocks can reduce the mental effort required to understand them. This aligns with the Law of Proximity, another crucial UX law, which suggests that elements close to each other are perceived as a group.

Moreover, Miller’s law plays a significant role in usability testing, helping identify areas where users tend to get confused due to the presence of multiple similar objects or a poorly defined boundary among elements.

Occam’s Razor

Occam’s Razor, also known as the Law of Parsimony, is a fundamental principle in UX design. This law advises choosing the simplest solution to a problem rather than a complex one. It’s a crucial guideline when it comes to designing user-friendly interfaces, as it aims to eliminate unnecessary design elements without compromising functionality.

In the context of UX design, designers often include multiple elements serving the same purpose. However, this can lead to a complex interface that can overload the working memory of the average person. Occam’s Razor encourages designers to reevaluate and remove elements that add unnecessary complexity.

Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule is a key concept in UX design. It suggests that a significant chunk of your results, around 80%, comes from a smaller portion of your efforts, typically 20%. This principle can be incredibly useful when it comes to refining or updating your interface.

Understanding the Pareto Principle can help guide your design efforts more efficiently. It allows you to focus on the most impactful aspects of your design, ensuring that your time and resources are utilized effectively. When faced with limited resources, this principle advises prioritizing the resolution of the 20% of issues that impact 80% of your users.

Although the exact figures might vary, the essence of the Pareto Principle lies in understanding the uneven relationship between cause and effect. This understanding can lead to more efficient improvements in your design. By focusing on the most critical issues, you can significantly enhance the user experience with a fraction of the effort. This principle helps in creating user-friendly digital products that meet users’ expectations and enhance their overall experience.
 

Peak-End Rule

The Peak-End Rule is a fundamental principle in UX design that focuses on the user’s memory of their experience. According to this law, users tend to remember the peak moments and the end of their interaction more vividly than other parts. This understanding is crucial when designing user-friendly interfaces, as it guides designers to focus on optimizing the key moments in the user’s journey.

Applying the Peak-End Rule in UX design involves identifying and enhancing the emotional highs in the user’s journey. These peak moments can significantly shape the user’s overall perception of the interface. If users encounter challenges or difficulties at these crucial moments, these negative experiences will be remembered, potentially leading to a poor overall user experience.

To mitigate this, UX designers should strive to ensure that the emotional peak during user interactions is positive. This can be achieved by simplifying tasks, providing clear instructions, and ensuring that the interface is intuitive and easy to use.

The end of the user’s journey is equally important. Designers should consider how to make the conclusion of the user’s interaction a better experience. This could involve providing clear confirmation messages, helpful next steps, or even a simple thank you message.

By optimizing these key moments and the conclusion of the user’s interaction, UX designers can create a more positive and memorable overall user experience. Following the Peak-End Rule can result in user-friendly digital products that not only meet users’ expectations but also leave a lasting positive impression. 

Postel’s Law or Robustness Principle

Postel’s Law, also known as the Robustness Principle, is a fundamental concept in UX design. Originally formulated for data transfer protocols, it has found relevance in user experience design. The principle states, “Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept.”

In the context of UX design, this means that designers should prioritize creating robust and flexible interfaces. It suggests that interfaces should be designed to accommodate a wide range of user inputs while providing clear and precise feedback.

The idea is to allow users to input data in their preferred format. This offers flexibility in how they provide information, making the interface more user-friendly. For example, a date field in a form could accept various formats, such as “MM/DD/YYYY” or “DD-MM-YYYY.”

However, being conservative in what you send is also critical. When errors occur, the interface should provide specific feedback. Instead of displaying generic error messages, the system should indicate which fields need correction and the correct format. This helps users understand what went wrong and how to fix it, enhancing their overall experience.

Postel’s Law guides UX designers in creating robust, flexible, and user-friendly digital products. It emphasizes the need for accommodating user inputs and providing clear, precise feedback, enhancing the overall user experience. 

Serial Position Effect

The Serial Position Effect is a crucial law in UX design that focuses on the positioning of elements in a sequence. This law suggests that users tend to remember the first and last elements in a sequence more readily than the ones in the middle.

This phenomenon is attributed to two effects: the Primacy Effect and the Recency Effect. The Primacy Effect explains why users can recall the first elements more easily. These elements require less cognitive effort to process and remember.

On the other hand, the Recency Effect refers to the enhanced recall of the last elements in a sequence. These elements are still fresh in the user’s memory, making them easier to remember.

In the realm of UX design, the Serial Position Effect can be leveraged by placing crucial elements at the beginning and end of a sequence. This positioning increases the likelihood of these elements being remembered by users.

On the contrary, elements that require less user interaction or are less critical can be positioned in the middle of the sequence. This positioning takes advantage of the fact that these elements are less likely to be remembered by users.

Hence, understanding and applying the Serial Position Effect can guide UX designers in creating more user-friendly and effective interfaces. It emphasizes the importance of strategic positioning of elements, enhancing the overall user experience. 

Tesler’s Law

Tesler’s Law, also known as the Law of Conservation of Complexity, is a fundamental principle in UX design. This law acknowledges that complexity in a system doesn’t just disappear; instead, it shifts from one place to another.

In the context of UX design, this law suggests that simplifying an interface feature can transfer the complexity from the user to the developers. This transfer creates a dilemma, as it involves striking a balance between simplicity for the user and complexity for the developers.

The balance between complexity and simplicity largely depends on various factors. These include the nature of the project, the user persona, and the available resources. Removing complexity from the user can enhance the overall user experience by reducing the cognitive load. However, it may also remove control that experienced users rely on, leading to a less satisfying experience for them.

Therefore, it’s crucial for UX designers to carefully evaluate the impact of adding or removing complexity. They should aim to create a user-friendly interface that effectively meets user needs. Following Tesler’s Law can guide designers in creating interfaces that strike the right balance, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience. 

Law of Magic

The concept of the “Law of Magic” in UX design, although not an actual law, emphasizes the crucial role of automating design decisions with artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve optimal user experience. This concept is particularly beneficial for founders of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. It encourages them to eliminate unnecessary complexities in their designs by leveraging AI design features.

One such platform that offers these AI features is Visily. This platform provides various design assistance tools. These tools can help in generating text, importing screenshots, and even creating user interface (UI) designs from simple text prompts.

The main advantage of using these AI features is their ability to help eliminate common UX/UI issues. They can significantly streamline the design process, making it more efficient and effective. In essence, the “Law of Magic” highlights the value of using AI to enhance the user experience. It underscores the importance of simplifying and streamlining the design process to create user-friendly digital products. 

Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect is a key principle in UX design that focuses on human memory and task completion. This law suggests that people tend to remember incomplete or interrupted tasks more vividly than those they have completed. This effect can be seen in everyday scenarios, such as watching a TV series. When a plot is left unfinished, viewers typically find it hard to forget and remain engaged, eager to know the outcome.

In the realm of UX design, the Zeigarnik Effect can be leveraged to engage users and prompt them to remember and complete actions within an interface. By leaving tasks incomplete or interrupted, designers can pique users’ curiosity and motivate them to complete the tasks. This can lead to enhanced user engagement and interaction with the digital product.

One effective way of applying the Zeigarnik Effect in UX design is through the use of progress bars and visual indicators of task completion. These elements can keep users informed about their progress, making them aware of the tasks they still need to complete. This can create a sense of achievement as users progress, enhancing their overall experience.

In essence, the Zeigarnik Effect is a crucial UX law that guides designers in creating interfaces that engage users, motivate task completion, and ultimately, enhance the overall user experience. 

Final Words

Understanding and applying these laws of UX design can significantly enhance the user experience, drive engagement, and ultimately, lead to the success of your digital product. However, the process of designing user-friendly interfaces can be complex and time-consuming.

That’s where Visily comes in. With its AI-powered design assistance, Visily simplifies the UX design process, making it easy and straightforward. It helps you adhere to these fundamental UX laws, ensuring your designs are intuitive, engaging, and user-friendly.

So, why wait? Start leveraging the power of AI in your UX design process with Visily today. Create digital products that not only look good but also function well, meeting users’ expectations and providing a seamless user experience.