UX & Design
FundamentalsHick's Law: Why Every Extra Option Slows Down Your Website
The more options you give visitors, the longer they take to decide, and the more often they decide not to decide at all. Hick's Law explains the connection, and we show what to do about it.
of Josef Kujawski5 min read
Short answer
Hick's Law states: the more options a person has, the longer they take to decide, and the more likely they are to decide nothing at all. On websites this means every extra menu item, button and form field costs decision time and conversion. The solution isn't radical minimalism, it's clear prioritization: one main action per section, grouped navigation, sensible defaults, and options that only appear once they become relevant.
The problem: your website offers too many paths
You know this from everyday life: you stand in front of a shelf with forty types of jam and walk home without any. On websites the exact same thing happens, just faster and quieter. A menu with nine entries, three buttons per section, five offers on the homepage. Every one of these decisions costs your visitors time and mental energy.
The principle: Hick's Law
Hick's Law (also known as the Hick-Hyman Law) describes a simple, robust relationship: the time a person needs to make a decision increases with the number of available options. Not linearly, but logarithmically. That means the jump from two to four options hurts more than the jump from eight to ten.
Origin and context
British psychologist William Edmund Hick and American psychologist Ray Hyman formulated the law in 1952 based on experiments on reaction time. Test subjects had to react to stimuli, and with every additional possible response, reaction time measurably increased. [2]
The law is often misread. It doesn't say "less is always better." It says: every option has a price, and that price is decision time. Sometimes that price is justified, for example during a deliberate product search. Often it isn't, for example with the primary call-to-action on a homepage.
Application to digital products
Wherever users have to make a choice, Hick's Law is at work:
- Navigation: Seven menu items aren't twice as bad as four, but they're noticeably more costly. Usability studies recommend limiting top-level navigation to the essentials. [3]
- Call-to-actions: Two equally weighted buttons next to each other ("Call us" and "Fill out the form") don't split clicks evenly, they dilute them.
- Forms: Every additional required field is a micro-decision. Every dropdown with thirty entries is a brake.
- Pricing pages: Three plans work better than seven, because comparability is preserved.
Kernaussage
Hick's Law isn't a call for a radical diet, it's a call for prioritization. The question isn't "how little can we offer?" but "which decision should the visitor actually make at this point?"
The solution: designing decisions on purpose
Concretely, you can apply Hick's Law like this:
- One main action per section. Secondary actions can exist, but must be visually clearly subordinate.
- Group navigation instead of stretching it. Seven equal items become three groups with sub-items.
- Set defaults. If 80% of users make the same choice, make it the default.
- Progressive disclosure. Show options only once they become relevant, not all at once.
| Location | Typical mistake | Better solution |
|---|---|---|
| Main menu | 9 top-level items | 4–5 items, rest grouped |
| Hero section | 3 equally weighted buttons | 1 primary button, 1 text link |
| Contact form | 12 fields | 4 fields, rest optional in conversation |
| Pricing page | 6 plans | 3 plans plus "Custom" |
The Maluure approach
When we design a website, we first ask for each section: what is the one decision that should be made here? Anything that doesn't support that decision gets cut or moved down. At first this feels like giving something up. In reality it's guidance.
The most common cause of weak websites isn't bad design, it's too many equally weighted decisions. If you make everything important, you make nothing important.
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Frequently asked questions
What does Hick's Law state?+
Hick's Law describes how a person's decision time increases logarithmically with the number of available options. More choice doesn't just mean longer decisions, it also means more frequent drop-offs.
What does Hick's Law have to do with web design?+
Every decision on a website, whether a menu item, button or form field, costs the visitor mental energy. Hick's Law explains why clean navigations and a single clear call-to-action convert better than cluttered pages.
How many menu items are ideal?+
There's no fixed number, but in practice four to five top-level items work well for most company websites. More important than the number is that the items are clearly distinguishable and prioritized.
Does that mean I should offer as little as possible?+
No. Hick's Law calls for prioritization, not minimalism. You can offer a lot of content as long as you group it, stagger it, and ask the visitor for only one main decision per section.
How do I apply Hick's Law to forms?+
Reduce required fields to the essentials, set sensible defaults, and only reveal optional fields once they become relevant. Every field is a micro-decision that costs you drop-offs.
Does Hick's Law apply to online shops too?+
Yes, especially on filter and product pages. Good shops solve this with strong filters, sorting and curated recommendations, instead of showing all products at once.
Sources
- Hick, W. E. (1952): On the rate of gain of information, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (1952)
- Hyman, R. (1953): Stimulus information as a determinant of reaction time, Journal of Experimental Psychology (1953)
- Nielsen Norman Group: Hick's Law, Making the choice easier for users, Nielsen Norman Group
#UX#Hick's Law#Conversion#Web Design#Psychology
Author
Josef KujawskiManaging Director & Creative Director at Maluure
Josef leads the strategic and creative development of brands at Maluure. For over a decade, he has guided medium-sized businesses from brand positioning to digital delivery.
Managing Director of Maluure GmbH, Cologne. Specialising in corporate design, brand strategy and digital brand experiences.
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