Jakob's Law
Designing Around What Users Already Know
Summary
Jakob’s Law is a usability principle stating that users spend most of their time on other sites, so they prefer your site to work the same way as the sites they already know. Formulated by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, it encourages designers to follow established conventions. Familiar patterns reduce learning effort and help people complete tasks faster.
Jakob’s Law is a principle of user experience named after Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group. It observes that people spend most of their time on websites and apps other than yours. Over time, they form mental models of how digital products should behave, and they bring those expectations with them. When your interface matches those expectations, it feels intuitive. When it breaks them without good reason, people get confused, make mistakes, or leave. The principle was later popularized by Jon Yablonski’s collection Laws of UX.
Common conventions shaped by Jakob’s Law include:
- Logo placement: The logo sits in the top-left corner and links to the homepage.
- Primary navigation: Main menu links appear across the top on desktop, often collapsing behind a menu icon on mobile.
- Shopping cart: The cart icon appears in the top-right corner of e-commerce sites.
- Search: A magnifying glass icon or search field near the top of the page.
- Links and forms: Underlined or clearly styled links, and form fields that look like familiar input boxes.
Why Jakob’s Law Matters
- Lower cognitive load: Users can focus on their goals instead of figuring out how the interface works.
- Faster task completion: Familiar patterns let people act on instinct, which supports conversions and reduces abandonment.
- Fewer support issues: Predictable interfaces generate fewer errors and questions.
- Smarter innovation: Knowing where conventions matter helps teams innovate where it creates real value instead of reinventing basic interactions.
Real-World Example of Jakob’s Law
A fashion brand redesigns its online store with an experimental layout: navigation hidden in a side panel triggered by an unlabeled icon and the cart accessible only by scrolling to the footer. The site looks distinctive, but shoppers struggle to find categories and their basket. After moving to a conventional header with visible categories and a cart icon in the top-right corner, while keeping the bold visual style, the store becomes easier to use without losing its personality.
How to Apply Jakob’s Law
Study the sites and apps your audience uses most, including direct competitors and the large platforms that shape everyday expectations. Use familiar patterns for core functions such as navigation design, search, checkout, and account management, and express your brand through visual style, content, and tone.
When planning a major redesign or rebranding, introduce structural changes gradually or offer guidance during the transition, because even an improved layout can frustrate existing users at first. Encode proven patterns in a design system so they stay consistent across pages. Finally, validate assumptions with usability testing. If you break a convention on purpose, testing will show whether the benefit outweighs the learning cost.
Conclusion
Jakob’s Law does not mean every site should look the same. It means familiar interactions should work in familiar ways, leaving room for creativity where it actually helps users and the brand.
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