Laws of UX

 

Fitts’ Law

The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to, and size of, the target - means spatially distance

 

Hick’s Law

The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. - simplify things that serves the user needs

 

Occam’s Razor

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

 

Tesler’s Law

Every application must have an inherent amount of irreducible complexity to deal with it. 

 

Jakob’s Law 

Users spend most of their time on other sites. Therefore, users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites. Design for the users’ accustomed patterns. 

 

Aesthetic Usability Effect

Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable. (Usability links to Aesthetics)

 

Miller’s Law

The average person can only keep 7 items in their working memory. 

 

Pareto Principle, 80/20 rule

80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes

Focus the majority of our attention or effect on the most important areas of the product. 

 

Workflow and the process of Iteration

Empathize: Research to understand the problem

Define: Empathy maps, user personas, point-of-view statements, and how-might-we questions

Ideate: Rapid idea generation. Brainstorming. 

Design: creating sketches, wireframes, and prototypes of the final product 

Test: models and prototypes are given to users to try out so the design can be iterated and developed

 

Variations on the format

Design Sprint:

Rapid design problem-solving through establishing clear time constraints 

 

Personal Workflow

-Plan the process in advance, inwardly commit to observing

-Restrict the amount of time to spend on developing wireframes or prototypes of the final design before getting feedback.

 

Value the process, instead of just end the result 

More iterations and variations, more compelling the story

Giving clients the insight of how is the workflow

 

User Stories

Describing the experience of using a feature in an app

-determine features to be built 

Driving prioritization and project planning

motivations/features

 

Task flows and user flows in UI

Task flows — the steps involved in completing a single task

 

Draw a flow in an existing app

 

Navigation:

Decision-making

The number of features or destinations

The logical position of a feature or destination in a hierarchy

The absolute importance of a feature or destination

The stage the user is at in a task flow

 

Common navigation patterns and models

Hierarchical tree

Hub and Spoke

Nested Doll: new set of options load after select a category

Flat

Search

 

Differences between navigation for web and mobile:

Physical Interaction:

Websites/desktops/labtops: user has a high degree of control - detailed navigation design

Mobile devices: less precise interaction instrument

Device Constraints: mobile - nested doll, hierarchical tree - desktop

Context of use: might be in motion, (minimize the number of tabs)

 

Wayfinding concepts in navigation design

Labels

Hierarchy

Breadcrumbs

Safe Exploration