Monday, October 3, 2011

Hicks Law

"Hick's law describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has". After researching hicks law, I discovered all of the math that went into describing how it works, most of which went right over my head. Still though, as a designer, specifically an interactive designer, hicks law is a very important thing to grasp.

If years from now I get a job to create the main navigation page for an up and coming companies website, Hicks law can play a big role in how I choose to set everything up. Sure the company may have over 300 products available, but will I list every single option on the main nav bar? No, users like to have things made easy for them. It would take significantly more time for a user to try and find the product he/she wants from just looking at list of 300 products than it would if I chose to maybe sub categorize all of the products into 5 distinct options that will narrow down the search. User interaction is one of the biggest parts of learning how to be a good designer in my field, and Hicks law definably should play a big role.

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