UX Laws

Question 1

Aesthetic-Usability Effect

Answer 1

Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable.

Question 2

Doherty Threshold

Answer 2

Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other.

Question 3

Fitts’s Law

Answer 3

The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.

Question 4

Goal-Gradient Effect

Answer 4

The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal.

Question 5

Hick’s Law

Answer 5

The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.

Question 6

Jakob’s Law

Answer 6

Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

Question 7

Law of Common Region

Answer 7

Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.

Question 8

Law of Proximity

Answer 8

Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together.

Question 9

Law of Prägnanz

Answer 9

People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible, because it is the interpretation that requires the least cognitive effort of us.

Question 10

Law of Similarity

Answer 10

The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.

Question 11

Law of Uniform Connectedness

Answer 11

Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.

Question 12

Miller’s Law

Answer 12

The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.

Question 13

Occam’s Razor

Answer 13

Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

Question 14

Pareto Principle

Answer 14

The Pareto principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Question 15

Parkinson’s Law

Answer 15

Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent.

Question 16

Peak-End Rule

Answer 16

People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.

Question 17

Postel’s Law

Answer 17

Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.

Question 18

Serial Position Effect

Answer 18

Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.

Question 19

Tesler’s Law

Answer 19

In any system there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced.

Question 20

Von Restorff Effect

Answer 20

When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.

Question 21

Zeigarnik Effect

Answer 21

People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.