Hick's law describes how decision time grows with the number and complexity of choices. In design it is a reminder to limit options on a page, especially at the moment you want someone to act.
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Applying it
Trim navigation on landing pages, highlight one recommended plan on a pricing table and group long menus into clear categories.
Use judgement
Fewer choices do not always win. People who want detail need it, and oversimplifying can hide what they need. Test rather than assume.
Common mistakes
Cutting options buyers actually compare
Remove clutter, not the information that helps people choose.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a useful principle from psychology, not an exact rule for every design. Treat it as a hypothesis to test.
Keep reading
- Cognitive Load: Cognitive load is the mental effort a page or interface demands. Too much makes visitors slower, more error-prone and more likely to leave.
- Decoy Effect: The decoy effect is when adding a clearly inferior option shifts people's choice toward a nearby option that looks better by comparison.
- Anchor Pricing: Anchor pricing presents a reference price, often a higher plan or original price, that shapes how buyers judge the value of the prices shown next to it.
- Plan Comparison Table: A plan comparison table lays out a product's pricing tiers in columns and their features in rows, so buyers can see exactly what each plan includes.
- Activation Moment: The activation moment is the point at which a new user first experiences a product's core value, often tied to a specific action that predicts retention.
- Form Optimization: Form optimization is improving web forms so more visitors complete them accurately, by cutting fields, clarifying labels and fixing validation and layout.
- Information Architecture: Information architecture is how a website's content is organized, labeled and connected, so visitors can find what they need and understand where they are.
- Intrusive Interstitials: Intrusive interstitials are popups or overlays that block a page's main content, which Google advises against because they make content hard to access.
