5 facts on Hick’s Law: too many choices make less sales.
T = b + log2 (n + 1) — this does not tell us much on how the decision making process looks like in our head. What do we basically know from that equation? The average reaction in time (T), depends on how many choices we have to decide upon (log2 — choices, n — uncertainty). American psychologists, William Hick has tested reaction to alternatives and held a conclusion, that the reaction time depends on how many stimuluses we need to respond to. What we can learn from this logarithm in sales?
The more time spent on page, the more sales?
We are used to a myth that the longer we stick to a page, the easier sales will happen. It actually depends on the page and the dedication behind it — that’s why to some pages you can surpass Hick’s law and forget about too long explanations or multiple page options. Your message should be clear with a header — what makes you different? Where is the most crucial call to action? How can you find the most interesting products? Spending a lot of time on one website can lead to frustration, and is often a sign of bad user experience — don’t rely on popular slogans, as they might be addressing different stages of browsing the page.
How easy it is to move to the next step?
If there are too many options, that users are driven to, the longer will be the decision process. Looking at one-pagers takes up energy and can lead to frustrations not choices. The more information, pictures, product descriptions you provide at hand, the harder it’s gonna be to approach the second step — “buy” or “contact” (if you’re not in the e-commerce vessel). Where lies a fine line between catching attention and pulling attention from the page? Unfortunately, there’s no answer to that — you will have to test it in your target group & count steps leading to checkout, search options and Call To Action efficiency on your www.
Semantic mess
You will be truly surprised how often it happens… are the searched shoes more like sandals or more like ballerinas? Is it a promotion, or a sale? In nearly every smaller shop, there’s a problem with promotion deals, outlets and every other marketing bargain, that should attract customers, but makes them wonder between tabs instead. In larger shops there’s a problem with naming options — better watch out, if you want to purchase casual sneakers being not sure if they qualify for sports wear. Each stock can be named specifically and users search for particular options… but being general is not a flaw. Some users don’t know what exactly they need and what’s the proper category, that they should use in the search — making too many tabs and being to specific can lead to confusion. Invest in advertising your best models, figure out simple and intuitive name tags, that would suit your customers & implement it online!
Wrong SEO can kill you
Targeting your marketing campaigns as those too good to be true, can cause a cognitive dissonance. As Hick’s law applies to decision making processes, those are often preceded by search engines, that suggest the best websites. If you target your store for #thecheapesttshirts and instead of t-shirts, you have tops from pajamas, confusion caused by your ads might reflect on the time spent on your site in a negative way… Defected campaigns are one thing, confusion & over-searching are another, and need to be avoided with a dedicated & well targeted landing page — for example.
Too long menu in the scrollable age
We are under the pressure of having scrollable pages, mobile adjusted webpages, and apps that have to be added to each and every service. There’s a lot of complications, when too many products are given up for the task — books, clothing, cosmetics. Too many choice options are elongating the process of decision making — it’s hard to choose from multiple options, especially on mobile devices, scrollable pages and apps. User experience can be adjusted to different products and channels, but it can has to be designed well in order to avoid confusion.
