Today, psychology and cognitive science topics have a remarkable place in user experience design. If you know how the brain works, you can better design attractive and effective products for users.
These psychological rules help you to design products that are more engaging, usable and practical for users.
1. Hick’s Law:
By increasing the number of available options, the user’s decision-making time (for example, while choosing a product and making a purchase) increases. ( and this is not good)
2. Fitts’ Law
Users click on larger buttons that are closer than small/distant buttons (so make the call-to-action button more prominent)
3. Jacob’s Law
Users spend most of their time on other sites and prefer your site to have the same functionality as other sites:
4. Pragnanz’s law
Your mind makes the vague pictures that you have seen as simple and comprehensible as possible. It helps the brain to assign a meaning to every object. (This law is a part of Gestalt principles)
5. Law of Similarity
Elements that are more similar in appearance seem related.
6. Law of Proximity
Objects that are placed close to each other seem related.
7. Miller’s Law
A normal person can keep 7 things in their real-time memory. (This principle is important in designing the information architecture of a website or app. Also, when designing the product comparison feature on online shopping websites.
8. Pareto Rule or 80/20 Rule
The Pareto Principle is a concept that specifies that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes, asserting an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs.
9. Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s law is an axiom that states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, things become harder to complete when more time is given to complete it
10. Serial-position effect
A German psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus noticed that the brain remembers the first and last item better when faced with several items in a list!
11. Von Restorff’s effect
When several items are similar, the one that is distinct from others is more likely to be remembered.
12. Zeigarnik’s effect
The human brain remembers unfinished tasks better than completed ones, and in short, our minds are busy with unfinished tasks.
Studies show that students who suspend their studies to perform unrelated activities (such as studying a different subject or playing a game will remember material better than students who complete study sessions without a break (related article)