Laws of UX

Quick summary of Laws of UX

Laws of UX (lawsofux.com) is one of the most-referenced UX heuristics resources on the internet — created by designer Jon Yablonski and published as both a beautifully-designed free website + a book ('Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services', published by O'Reilly). Catalogues 21+ psychological principles + cognitive biases that influence how users interact with interfaces — Hick's Law (decision time scales with number of choices), Fitts's Law (time to acquire target depends on distance + size), Jakob's Law (users spend most time on other sites + expect yours to work the same), Miller's Law (working memory limit of ~7 items), Aesthetic-Usability Effect (users perceive aesthetic designs as easier to use), Doherty Threshold (productivity soars below 400ms response time), Peak-End Rule (people judge experiences by peak + end moments), Serial Position Effect, Postel's Law, Tesler's Law, Zeigarnik Effect, von Restorff Effect, and many more. Each law has dedicated page with detailed explanation + visual diagram + real-world examples + book references + further reading. Sits in UX education landscape alongside foundational books — Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug (UX classic for web usability), About Face by Alan Cooper (comprehensive interaction design), The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman (design psychology), Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan + Steve Schoger (practical UI craft), Designing for the Mind by Susan Weinschenk (similar psychology angle) — and other UX education resources including Nielsen Norman Group articles (research-heavy UX content with academic depth) + UX design courses. Distinguished from Don't Make Me Think + About Face + Design of Everyday Things (foundational UX books with broader narrative scope) by visual reference card format + free accessibility, distinguished from Nielsen Norman Group articles (research-heavy academic UX content) by accessible entry-level format + visual presentation, distinguished from Designing for the Mind by Susan Weinschenk (similar psychology angle in book form) by free web-accessible reference format, distinguished from general design principles books (Refactoring UI + various UI craft books) by UX psychology + cognitive biases specific lens. Free website + paid book (~$25-35); the website is genuinely free + complete; the book is supplementary deeper material rather than required. Best for designers learning UX principles + onboarding new design team members (most-accessible entry to psychological principles relevant to interface design), senior designers articulating design decisions in reviews + documentation using established UX heuristics for shared vocabulary, self-taught designers building UX fundamentals via accessible visual reference rather than committing to full books upfront, and designers reaching for UX heuristics during active design work where the website's clear card format makes specific laws easy to look up + apply. Skip for hands-on tactical UI design technique (Refactoring UI + practical UI books fit better for craft-focused work), for extensive research depth requiring academic-style UX content (Nielsen Norman Group articles + academic HCI papers + UX research books go deeper), for general design principles broader than UX-specific psychology (broader design books cover wider scope including visual design + brand + craft), or for hands-on technique without theoretical framing (designers ready for advanced craft skip foundational principles). One of the great free UX education resources on the web in 2026 — foundational + accessible + frequently referenced; recommended without hesitation for designers at any level.