User Experience is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system, or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency.
Laws of UX
Heuristic
#
Type
Name
Description
Mnemonic
Repo
1
Heuristic
Aesthetic-Usability Effect
Users often perceive aestethically pleasing design as design that's more usable.
Aesthetic
2
Heuristic
Fitt's Law
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.
Distance & Size
3
Heuristic
Goal-Gradient Effect
The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal.
Progress Bar
4
Heuristic
Hick's Law
The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
Paradox of Choice
5
Heuristic
Jakob's Law
User spends 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 know.
Universal Template
6
Heuristic
Miller's Law
The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.
+- 7 items
7
Heuristic
Parkinson's Law
Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent.
Inflation
Principle
#
Type
Name
Description
Mnemonic
Repo
1
Principle
Doherty Treshold
Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at pace (<400 ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other.
Speed & Duration
2
Principle
Occam's Razor
Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.
Less Assumptions
3
Principle
Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effect come from 20% of the causes.
80:20
4
Principle
Postel's Law
Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.
Liberal-Conservative
5
Principle
Tesler's Law
For any system, there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced.
Tolerance
Gestalt
#
Type
Name
Description
Mnemonic
Repo
1
Gestalt
Law of Common Region
Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.
Clear Boundary
2
Gestalt
Law of Proximity
Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together.
Near Objects
3
Gestalt
Law of Prägnanz
People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible, because it is the interpelation that requires the least cognitive effort of us.
Cognitive Effort
4
Gestalt
Law of Similarity
The human eyes tend to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.
Eyes & Similar Elements
5
Gestalt
Law of Uniform Connectedness
Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.
Connection
Cognitive Bias
#
Type
Name
Description
Mnemonic
Repo
1
Cognitive Bias
Peak-End Rule
People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and its end, rather than total the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.
Pump and Dump
2
Cognitive Bias
Serial Position Effect
Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.
Alpha-Omega
3
Cognitive Bias
Von Restorff Effect
The Von Restorff Effect, also known as The Isolation Effect, predicts that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.
Isolation
4
Cognitive Bias
Zeigarnik Effect
People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
Uncompleteness
These notes are not made to make you memorize all the laws in a short time. It was created as a compass that guides you through the User Experience. The more often we implement these laws of UX, the more our skills will increase.
Mnemonics were created to help you remember specific keywords.
The repo will contain more detailed explanations, implementation examples, and exercises.