Reading "Laws of UX”

Jon Yablonski’s Laws of UX is a manifesto wrapped in science. A handbook for designers who want more than trends. His core argument: psychology is design’s secret weapon. If we want to build interfaces that feel effortless, intuitive, even delightful—we need to understand how humans actually think.

Yablonski respects patterns. Cognitive shortcuts. The brain’s stubborn habits. And he urges us: don’t fight them—design with them.

He lays out 12 principles—each a psychological insight, each paired with real-world examples:

• Jakob’s Law: Users expect your interface to behave like other interfaces. Innovate where it matters, but don’t make people relearn basic things.
• Fitts’s Law: Make buttons easy to hit. Bigger targets. Closer placement. Simple physics meets interface design.
• Hick’s Law: More choices = more decision time. Break complexity into steps. Don’t overwhelm. Respect cognitive load.
• Miller’s Law: People can hold 7±2 items in memory. So chunk information. Don’t make people remember what you can simply show.
• Postel’s Law: Be forgiving. Accept varied inputs. Don’t punish people for being human.
• Peak-End Rule: People judge experiences by the emotional peak and the ending. Design with those moments in mind.
• Aesthetic-Usability Effect: Pretty interfaces feel more usable—even if they aren’t. Beauty matters.
• Von Restorff Effect: Make the important stuff stand out. We remember what breaks the pattern.
• Tesler’s Law: Complexity can’t be destroyed—only moved. So manage it smartly.
• Doherty Threshold: Speed matters. Feedback under 400ms keeps people in flow.
• Power & Responsibility: Psychology gives designers power. Use it ethically.
• Application Chapter: Not just laws—methods to actually use them. Tools, research, frameworks.

This isn’t about best practices. It’s about human defaults. Attention is scarce. Memory is limited. Emotion rules. And design, when done well, aligns with those truths—not fights them.

Yablonski isn’t saying all design should look the same. He’s saying great design feels the same: predictable, clear, effortless. It’s not about making users think less—it’s about making their thinking easier.

In the end, Laws of UX reminds us: good design isn’t just pretty—it’s empathetic. Built on how people actually behave, not how we wish they would.