Hick’s Law

Law states that with every additional choice the time it will take for one to make a selection increases. In short, the more options your website has the more difficult it will be to use…

The classic case study for Hick’s law involves a grocery store which put out free jam tasting for customers. In one case they had 40+ jams to sample and choose from compared to three samples in the control. The researchers discovered that customers purchased more jam when presented with a handful of options compared to the forty plus. Customers opted not to purchase jam rather than pick from such a large selection.

Hick’s law tells us that we should minimize choices where practical. This include removing non-critical pages, links, buttons and elements will make your designs more effective.