Established by William Edmund Hick (On the Rate of Gain of Information, 1952) and Ray Hyman (Stimulus Information as a Determinant of Reaction Time, 1953).
States that decision time rises with the logarithm of the number of choices, so every added option slows people down and degrades their choices.
When to reach for it
When designing a menu, form, product lineup, or set of options for customers or staff on the assumption that more choice helps.
How it runs
- Count the choices at each decision point.
- Prune options that few people need.
- Group the rest into categories where pruning is impossible.
- Set sensible defaults that people can override.
- Test how the number of options affects speed and errors.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- On the Rate of Gain of Information, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1952
- Stimulus Information as a Determinant of Reaction Time, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1953