More options leads to harder decisions
HICK'S LAW DEFINITION
Hick's Law predicts that the time and the effort it takes to make a decision, increases with the number of options. The more choices, the more time users take to make their decisions.
HICK'S LAW EXAMPLES
1
In a travel booking app like Airbnb, having too many options can lead to a paradox of choice (and a churn!):
2
Trello's 3rd signup step has a dropdown with 15 options. That makes it hard to pick one:
3
Duolingo's list of lessons can sometimes be overwhelming:
HICK'S LAW CHECKLIST
✔ Find an area where you have a lot of options or a lot of repetitions.
✔ Try to either reduce the number of options or find ways to hide items. (Do they all need to be displayed at once? #progressive disclosure)
✔ If you can't minimize the options, try to put them in an easily skimmable order and make sure the items are familiar; else, it won't work
Redefining Hick’s Law, Smashing Magazine (2020)
Page Conversion Rate Optimization, Instapage (2020)
Design principle: Hick’s Law — quick decision making, Anton Nikolov (2017)
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