Physics of Interaction · principle
Hick's Law
Playable Play this law (~3 min)or keep reading below ↓
The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices — logarithmically, not linearly. Every option you add to a menu, a form, or an onboarding step taxes the user's decision time, which is why great products ruthlessly trim or stage their choices.
See it on a real screen
Decision time climbs with every option you add. Staging a few clear choices — the way Google's one search box or an onboarding wizard does — beats dumping the whole menu on screen at once.
Where it comes from
In 1952, British psychologist W.E. Hick timed people reacting to a ring of lamps, each paired with a Morse key — the more lamps that could light up, the longer each reaction took, growing with the logarithm of the count. Ray Hyman confirmed it the next year, and like Fitts's Law it fell straight out of Shannon's information theory: more possible signals, more bits to process. Seventy years later it's why your TV remote feels awful and Google's homepage doesn't.
Origin: Hick's 1952 lamp-and-Morse-key reaction apparatus
In the wild
- Google
The famously stripped homepage: one box, one decision. Search is the only choice you have to make.
- Onboarding wizards
Sign-up flows ask one question per screen instead of twenty on one page — staging choices keeps each decision fast.
- Netflix
'Top Picks' and short rows exist because a wall of 5,000 titles would stall the decision — curation fights Hick's Law.
- Restaurant menus
Progressive disclosure in the physical world: sections and chef's specials narrow an overwhelming list into small decisions.
Further reading
Don't just read it — feel it.
Play the 3-minute game and let your own reactions prove the law.
Play the lesson