UX Laws with Netflix Illustrations
This blog is a product of the #100DaysOfUX for Day 004/100.
References — https://lawsofux.com/
Hi everyone!
I recently discovered that my so-called ‘design sense’ and the design ethics that I have been using since forever are actually some genuine UX laws!!!!
So, in regards to my last blog based on Netflix’s UX Timeline case study, I made an attempt to find out 8 examples of these laws practically used in building Netflix’s design.
Let’s begin!
Aesthetic-Usability Effect(1/8)
Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as a design that’s more usable.
Key Takeaways —
1. An aesthetically pleasing design creates a positive response in people’s brains and leads them to believe the design actually works better.
2. People are more tolerant of minor usability issues when the design of a product or service is aesthetically pleasing.
3. Visually pleasing design can mask usability problems and prevent issues from being discovered during usability testing.
Doherty Threshold(2/8)
Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other.
Key Takeaways —
1. Provide system feedback within 400 ms in order to keep users’ attention and increase productivity.
2. Use perceived performance to improve response time and reduce the perception of waiting.
3. Animation is one way to visually engage people while loading or processing is happening in the background.
4. Progress bars help make wait times tolerable, regardless of their accuracy.
5. Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and instil a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.
Fitt’s Law(3/8)
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.
Key Takeaways —
1. Touch targets should be large enough for users to accurately select them.
2. Touch targets should have ample spacing between them.
3. Touch targets should be placed in areas of an interface that allow them to be easily acquired.
Jakob’s Law(4/8)
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
Key Takeaways —
1. Users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar product to another that appears similar.
2. By leveraging existing mental models, we can create superior user experiences in which the users can focus on their tasks rather than on learning new models.
3. When making changes, minimize discord by empowering users to continue using a familiar version for a limited time.
Law of Common Region(5/8)
Elements tend to be perceived as groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.
Key Takeaways —
1. Common region creates a clear structure and helps users quickly and effectively understand the relationship between elements and sections.
2. Adding a border around an element or group of elements is an easy way to create a common region.
3. Common region can also be created by defining a background behind an element or group of elements.
Law of Proximity(6/8)
Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together.
Key Takeaways —
1. Proximity helps to establish a relationship with nearby objects.
2. Elements in close proximity are perceived to share similar functionality or traits.
3. Proximity helps users understand and organize information faster and more efficiently.
Von Restorff Effect(7/8)
The Von Restorff effect, also known as The Isolation Effect, predicts that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.
Key Takeaways —
1. Make important information or key actions visually distinctive.
2. Use restraint when placing emphasis on visual elements to avoid them competing with one another and to ensure salient items don’t get mistakenly identified as ads.
3. Don’t exclude those with a colour vision deficiency or low vision by relying exclusively on colour to communicate contrast.
4. Carefully consider users with motion sensitivity when using motion to communicate contrast.
Zeigarnik Effect(8/8)
People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
Key Takeaways —
1. Invite content discovery by providing clear signifiers of additional content.
2. Providing artificial progress towards a goal will help to ensure users are more likely to have the motivation to complete that task.
3. Provide a clear indication of progress in order to motivate users to complete tasks.
With this, we come to a close to this blog. Did you like what you read? Would you like to know more about me? Well, guess what, I’m on LinkedIn, so go ahead and reach out! Bbye!!!
With ❤,
Ananya Gupta
