Hick’s Law
If the terms bounce rate, exit rate, low engagement rate, abandoned cart appear nightmarish, factoring in Hick’s law in your build may have led to some respite. Here’s how you go about it...
Impeached of complexity
Not sure how many of you readers here are fans of online games as of today although I am sure we’ve all had our stint with multi-player online games that were played over those days of having to install and run it as a desktop application and of course the internet era where it all happens over a browser.
But have you have ever heard of World of Warcraft (WoW)?
It could easily be touted as possessing one of the most complicated UI for an online multi-player game. In fact, the complexity of the UI is so huge a problem that there’s a whole community dedicated to it on reddit.
Just for the benefit of doubt here’s a user still from that LIVE game:
Ok, one rationale points to how this isn’t a problem at the App level but all to do with the user-level and device settings perhaps. And, even if that were to be true for a second, I don’t think there’s any excuse for the UI looking so cluttered that it would take the user a Ph. D in gaming to be able to play.
That’s totally impeached with complexity & guilty as charge.
You see how an exceedingly large number of those games seem to be going by the logic that’s on the lines of - “go figure”.
Well! That may work for them, but not over a regular B2C or B2B product and especially over a D2C mobile / WebApp.
NEVER. That’s definitely a big NO-NO!
A smoothly operative UI with absolute clarity in hierarchical grouping over those individual segments of the screen contributing individually towards the completion of a task or a stage in the user’s workflow and collectively towards an outcome would go a long way in rendering a seamless UX and that would be really appreciated by users from demographically diverse groups.
The Hick’s Law
Coined by William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman in 1952 it simply states that the increasing number of variables in the stimuli the audience is presented with, the longer it would take for them to be able to arrive at a decision.
For all you MATH fans (me included), this is the representation:
RT = a + b log2(n)
RT – reaction time
n – no. of stimuli
a, b – arbitrarily measurable constants that totally depend on the task(s)
The more the number of options the user is left to consider and the more complexity the users are fronted with, the more the amount of time they would take to arrive at a decision. And be warned that complexity could kill so bad that users may not feel like coming back to the app / screen / product ever, leading to a total abandon.
Key learning:
If you want people to make quick decisions that favor you, you’d better work on the correlation, relevance, strength of the stimulus, because the lesser complicated that happens to be the easier it would be to facilitate that decision.
Warning:
A fair warning here. When Hick’s law suggests that the content be toned down to the target audience please remember that the central idea here is to keep things simple or make the workflow simpler (if possible) but NEVER ever to eliminate stuff entirely in an aim to reduce complexity.
Some products in the world are complex for a reason & that’s the way they have to be. It’s a hardbound requirement and one can do nothing about it apart from grouping that properly or segregating them.
For ex: the cockpit of a commercial aircraft.
Application with examples:
Look around and there could be tons of apps where you see the Hick’s law effectively factored into the product design and build driving the point home with minimalistic design overtly simplifying the whole workflow winning it all.
Key Metrics:
There are some key metrics that one could track over measuring the experiences of the wider audience in general and users in particular so as to reaffirm that one’s operating post factoring in Hick’s law well.
Although there’s no denying that the metrics and the related KPIs could differ over products, here are a few generic ones that totally make sense to track over SaaS products:
NOTE 1: When these metrics and derived KPIs could look all hunky-dory, it is important to keep studying them and periodically realign them to the goals of your org or product given that specific cadence or cohort in question so as to be indicative of the current scenario and target consistent improvement.
NOTE 2: NEVER copy someone else’s KPIs directly even if that were to be your closest competition. Ensure you devise your own KPIs reflecting the performance of your org / product / phase of growth and mainly the goals that you have perched your eyes upon.
NOTE 3: If you happen to be a startup and this is looking too much beyond your reach, you could hire an “external consultant” who could help you plan this out well. But ensure you get your growth indicators and KPIs right before proceeding.
Factoring in Hick’s Law:
Many who have started out as a developer and have grown into managerial or leadership roles today would totally resonate with this thought. As someone who was actively coding / building products it is very possible that one got into exploring the annals of complexity digging in deeper by the day given how the sole aim / the goal was “to explore and conquer complex stuff” as most of us enjoyed being present there in the thick of things. But for some it was also a quick reality check when the products they built didn’t receive the appreciation that was anticipated which may have enforced a spell of introspection.
Why do I sense disconnection to a large degree?
Why do users dislike stuff I built in spite of putting in all the hard work?
What do the users really need? What’s it that ticks them up?
Application to Product Management:
The application of Hick’s law could be done over 3 different phases across the PLC:
Product design & build
Design and build could be complicated in many cases, no doubt. But exposing that complexity to the users could never an option as it could be totally irrelevant.
For ex: How would you feel if Google revealed the internal APIs / architecture & how search works at an algorithm level? Although that could end up being a pleasure for all techies it certainly is going to fall flat as for a larger audience who get on the App bound by one intention – “to find stuff they’re looking for”
Product marketing
Building some great content on the back of some impeccably complex copywriting ought to be the route you ought to take as a team if you’re looking to feature as frontrunners for the “Best advert” / “Best marketing campaign” award for the year. But not if you’re looking beyond that very marketing initiative and aiming to build awareness contributing to some impeccable ToFu conversion.
One common mistake that I come across over many products is how they go into revealing depths of research they conducted as a part of the pitch, or even over an advertisement. When that could still make sense to quote over say an F2F meeting with someone during those sales cycles, it’s got no good reason to be in the pitch or the advert.
Testing & product adoption
Conducting various tests that are essentially carried out on the field right from A/B tests, multivariate tests, acceptance testing, usability testing are all very crucial phases that help spill the beans over how users or the laymen perceive the value that you thought the product was going to add. But prior to that as a precursor it could work pretty well if the screens or the steps in the workflow are to be tested by a non-team-member – someone who doesn’t have anything even remotely to do with envisioning, building, testing software applications and that could come in very handy.
Here’s what may appear a pretty wild thought to many, but it did does work wonders if conducted well. Post that initiative bearing some fruit I can vouch for how some of the internal teams started to believe more in it and seem to leave no stone unturned so as to inculcate it as a regular habit inviting the guys from the admin team over to conduct some usability tests.
Key Takeaway:
Encapsulating complexity and dumbing it all down significantly to fit in well with the target audience so as to measure best-fit is a necessity given today’s age of SaaS products and growth strategies like PLG (Product-Led-Growth), UXLG (UX-Led-Growth) and there’s no better way to factor in Hick’s law dumb-proofing your products in general and the UI / UX in particular.