Jakob’s Law of UX: Design for Familiarity to Minimize User Effort
In the ever-evolving world of digital design, creating intuitive and user-friendly interfaces is paramount. One key principle that can help designers achieve this goal is Jakob’s Law. Named after renowned usability expert Jakob Nielsen
What is Jakob’s Law?
At its core, Jakob’s Law emphasizes the importance of familiarity in design. Users who navigate websites or applications bring a set of learned behaviors and expectations from their previous online experiences. Leveraging these established habits can significantly enhance usability and reduce the learning curve for new users.
“Users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.”
Some Takeaways of Jakob’s Law
- Users transfer expectations from familiar products to new, similar ones.
- Leverage existing mental models to create superior user experiences.
- Focus on allowing users to concentrate on their tasks, not on learning new models.
- Minimize discord by allowing users to continue using a familiar version for a limited time.
- Ensure consistency in design elements to reinforce familiarity.
- Implement gradual changes to avoid overwhelming users.
Have you ever wondered why the design of these three music applications looks so similar?
In today’s digital landscape, users engage with numerous apps daily and seek familiarity to avoid learning new features. They prefer products that align with their existing mental models for efficient task completion. Users prioritize achieving goals over exploring and admiring interfaces.
Therefore, the core objective of user experience design is to facilitate users in reaching their end goals with greater ease and efficiency.
Have you ever wondered why, even though big companies have creative and experienced design teams, they often create similar-looking icons, CTA buttons, and micro-interactions as other products on the market?
Here are some reasons Behind the Similarities in Design
- Established Best Practices
- Reason: Designers follow established best practices and design patterns that have been proven to work effectively in achieving user goals.
- Implication: This leads to a standardization of design elements across different products, which helps users quickly understand how to interact with new applications.
2. User Expectations and Mental Models
- Reason: Users develop expectations and mental models based on their experiences with existing products. Designers aim to meet these expectations to ensure a seamless user experience.
- Implication: By aligning with familiar design patterns, products can leverage users’ existing knowledge and improve usability.
3. Competitive Benchmarking
- Reason: Companies often analyze competitors to understand what works in the market and to ensure their designs are competitive.
- Implication: This results in similar design choices as companies strive to meet or exceed industry standards and user expectations.
4. Efficiency in Design and Development
- Reason: Using proven design patterns and components speeds up the design and development process.
- Implication: This efficiency helps companies release products faster while minimizing the risk of usability issues.
What happens if a website or app violates Jakob’s Law?
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing as elsewhere. Users don’t need to be on your website or app and at any moment they are just a click away from your competitors. When it comes to the web, users are quick to make judgments and they’re ruthless about their opinions.
Remember the re-design of Twitter or the Snapchat logo?
Too much deviation can make your site harder to use, often alienating users and damaging their interaction with your brand. Sometimes ending the relationship altogether.
Conclusion
Jakob’s Law champions a user-centered design approach by emphasizing the importance of meeting user expectations through familiar patterns while balancing innovation. Adhering to this principle helps create websites and applications that are both functional and enjoyable for a broad user base.
