--- title: "Hick’s Law" url: "https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/hicks-law" language: "en" description: "What is Hick’s Law in UX design? A plain-language explanation with an example and practical tips. Learn how to design choices people can make faster." published: "2026-10-14T09:50:31+02:00" updated: "2026-10-14T13:06:06+02:00" --- # Hick’s Law Hick’s Law states that decisions take longer the more equally likely options there are. Decision time grows much more slowly than the number of options, though. - **Buchstabe:** H UX glossary # Hick’s Law Hick’s Law states that decisions take longer the more equally likely options there are. Decision time grows much more slowly than the number of options, though. Imagine you’re standing in a café in front of a board with 40 kinds of coffee, twelve milk options, and eight syrups. The line behind you keeps growing, and in the end you just order a cappuccino because deciding takes too long. The café next door has six drinks, and you know what you want within seconds. ## Explained simply Hick’s Law, also called the Hick-Hyman law, describes a pattern from experimental psychology: the more equally likely options you have, the longer it takes you to decide. It’s named after British psychologist William Edmund Hick and American psychologist Ray Hyman. Hick published his experiments in 1952, and Hyman followed in 1953. In both studies, people had to react as quickly as possible to one of several light signals. Here’s the interesting part: decision time doesn’t grow at the same rate as the number of options. It grows much more slowly. Mathematically, it rises logarithmically. Twice as many options don’t mean twice as much thinking time, just a little more. A common explanation is that people mentally split the options into groups and rule out roughly half at each step, a bit like the game “I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 100.” For a compact overview of Hick’s Law and related principles, check out the [Laws of UX](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/ressourcen/laws-of-ux) resource. ## Where the law applies and where it doesn’t In UX design, Hick’s Law is often used as an argument for keeping menus as short as possible. That’s only partly right. The logarithmic pattern mainly holds when people already know the options and can sort through them quickly, for example an alphabetical list in which they’re looking for a name they know. With an unsorted list of unfamiliar items, on the other hand, people have to read each entry one by one. Time then grows more or less linearly, and Hick’s Law isn’t the right model. On top of that, fewer options aren’t a goal in themselves. If you cut menus too aggressively, content ends up buried in deeper levels and gets harder to find. That trade-off between breadth and depth is the topic of [Flat vs. Deep Hierarchy: Which Structure Is Best?](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/blog/flat-vs-deep-hierarchy-which-structure-is-best) ## An example Here’s an example. A software company’s pricing page shows five plans side by side, each with 25 features. Many prospects compare for ages, come back to the page several times, and end up buying nothing. After the redesign, there are three plans. The middle one is highlighted as “Best for most teams,” and each plan shows only its five most important differences up front. The full comparison table is still available, just collapsed. No feature has disappeared. The decision has simply become easier. ## In practice - **Group, don’t cut.** Organize many options into clear categories. That way, people make several small decisions instead of one big one. - **Offer a recommendation.** A highlighted default option saves people a lot of weighing up without taking anything away from them. - **Sort sensibly.** Use an order people can follow, such as alphabetical, by popularity, or by sequence. Only then can they narrow down the choice quickly. ## Related terms [Cognitive Load](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/cognitive-load), [Fitts’ Law](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/fitts-law), [Progressive Disclosure](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/progressive-disclosure), [Information Architecture](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/information-architecture) ## Sources - [W. E. Hick: On the Rate of Gain of Information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1952](https://doi.org/10.1080/17470215208416600) - [Jon Yablonski: Hick’s Law. Laws of UX](https://lawsofux.com/hicks-law/) - [Wikipedia: Hick’s law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hick%27s_law) ## More terms [ ### A/B Testing An A/B test is an experiment that shows two versions of a page or element at the same time to randomly split groups of visitors. It lets you decide with real data which version works better. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/a-b-testing) [ ### ARIA ARIA is a W3C standard that adds roles, states and properties to HTML. It tells screen readers what an element is and how it currently behaves. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/aria) [ ### Accessibility Accessibility means designing websites, apps and digital documents so that everyone can use them, including people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/accessibility) [ ### Affordance An affordance describes what action an object makes possible and whether people can recognize it: a button invites you to press it, a handle invites you to pull. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/affordance) [ ### Alt Text Alt text is a short text version of an image, stored in the HTML alt attribute. Screen readers read it aloud so people who can’t see the image get the same information. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/alt-text) [ ### Atomic Design Atomic Design is a method for building user interfaces from small, reusable building blocks, from single elements like buttons all the way up to complete pages. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/atomic-design) [ ### BFSG The BFSG, Germany’s Accessibility Strengthening Act, has required many companies since 28 June 2025 to make certain products and digital services, such as online shops, accessible. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/bfsg) [ ### Card Sorting Card sorting is a research method in which people sort terms written on cards into groups. It shows you how they mentally organize content, so you can plan navigation that makes sense to them. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/card-sorting) [ ### Cognitive Load Cognitive load is the mental effort it takes to understand and use an interface. The less unnecessary thinking a design demands, the easier the actual task becomes. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/cognitive-load) [ ### Color Vision Deficiency A color vision deficiency means someone has a harder time telling certain colors apart than most people. The most common type is red-green deficiency. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/color-vision-deficiency) [ ### Contextual Inquiry Contextual inquiry is a research method where you observe and interview people in their real work environment. It shows you how they actually get tasks done, not just how they describe it. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/contextual-inquiry) [ ### Contrast Ratio The contrast ratio describes how much two colors differ in brightness, such as text and background. WCAG requires at least 4.5:1 for normal text. ](https://insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/contrast-ratio)