I overheard some people talking about “Hick's Law” at a party the other day. (I really must stop attending such WILD social functions.) Anyway, sounds like the gist of Hick's Law is the idea that it takes people more time to make a decision when there are many options to pick from. In other words, it takes much longer to decide between three options than it does to decide between two, and it takes significantly longer to decide between four options than it does to decide between three. And so on and so forth, until apparently it levels off. (At that point in the conversation, people started talking about logarithms, so I made a beeline for the buffet.)
Using This Idea for Web Design
Although they may not know that this idea is called Hick's Law, good web designers take this concept into consideration every time they design a website. As a business owner, you don't want people to come to your page and stare at it blankly while they try to decide where to click. You want those visitors to explore, interact with your page, and stay interested. In order to make this happen, good web designers don't crowd your page with a boat load of options; they keep it simple and easy to navigate.
Even complex websites that do involve lots of options tend to make the decision process easier by organizing the choices. It's rare to visit a website and see fifty links right on the front page. Instead, a website that has fifty pages to offer tends to organize these choices into categories and present them in drop-down menus. This breaks the decision making into smaller chunks and avoids wasting the website visitors' time.
So Keep It Simple, Got It?
So there you go. I've been a fan of dynamic yet straightforward websites for years, and now I've got a law backing me up. Get rid of clutter and unnecessary choices, and your customers will find your website easy to use and fun to visit. (Much more fun than, say, that party.)
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