Knowing a few best practices when it comes to user experience can help you design better apps. Here are some of the most common UX laws to keep in mind:
The more choices you give a user, the longer it takes them to make a decision. It’s important to keep your UI simple and focused on the most essential actions.
Example: If you have 10 menu items, consider grouping them or creating separate pages for less important sections. Power user apps may need all options visible at once.
The time it takes to move to a target depends on the distance to it and its size. Make buttons and interactive elements large enough to be easily tapped.
Example: Use a minimum size of 44px x 44px for buttons, and ensure proper padding and spacing for menu items.
Users spend most of their time on other sites, so they prefer your site to work like the ones they’re used to. Following common design patterns makes your app more intuitive and reduces the learning curve.
Example: Look at leading apps for design patterns. Don’t copy them exactly, but consider how familiar layouts and flows can apply to your app to help new users adapt quickly.
Every system has an inherent level of complexity that can’t be reduced. Either the app or the user must handle this complexity to avoid oversimplification.
Example: URIs need to be exposed to users for proper understanding. Avoid renaming these concepts to something overly abstract.
People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. Use this to guide users through multi-step processes by providing visual cues of progress.
Example: In a multi-step onboarding, use progress bars or step lists to show how much is left, encouraging users to complete the process.