🙈 Filter the information: The Psychology of UX Design

Users filter out a lot of the information that they receive, even when it could be important.

No. Name One-Liner Category
1 👀 Hick's Law More options leads to harder decisions Information
2 💼 Confirmation Bias People look for evidence that confirms what they think Information
3 👁 Priming Previous stimuli influence users' decision Information
4 🚛 Cognitive Load Total amount of mental effort that is required to complete a task Information
5 ⚓️ Anchoring Bias Users rely heavily on the first piece of information they see Information
6 👉 Nudge Subtle hints can affect users' decisions Information
7 🍰 Progressive Disclosure Users are less overwhelmed if they're exposed to complex features later Information
8 🎯 Fitts's Law Large and close elements are easier to interact with Information
9 🐠 Attentional Bias Users' thoughts filter what they pay attention to Information
10 🤝 Empathy Gap People underestimate how much emotions influence user behaviors Information
11 ⛵️ Visual Anchors Elements used to guide users' eyes Information
12 🌶 Von Restorff Effect People notice items that stand out more Information
13 🥇 Inverted Pyramid Users prefer receiving the most important information first, followed by details Information
14 🎖 Visual Hierarchy The order in which people perceive what they see Information
15 🔭 Selective Attention People filter out things from their environment when in focus Information
16 🕶 Banner Blindness Users tune out the stuff they get repeatedly exposed to Information
17 🍒 Juxtaposition Elements that are close and similar are perceived as a single unit Information
18 🚦 Signifiers Elements that communicate what they will do Information
19 🆚 Contrast Users' attention is drawn to higher visual weights Information
20 🚨 External Trigger When the information on what to do next is within the prompt itself Information
21 🕺 Decoy Effect Create a new option that's easy to discard Information
22 🎪 Centre-Stage Effect People tend to choose the middle option in a set of items Information
23 🖼 Framing The way information is presented affects how users make decisions Information
24 🍣 Law of Proximity Elements close to each other are usually considered related Information
25 🍬 Tesler's Law If you simplify too much, you'll transfer some complexity to the users Information
26 🧨 Spark Effect Users are more likely to take action when the effort is small Information
27 🥏 Feedback Loop When users take action, feedback communicates what happened Information
28 😻 Expectations Bias People tend to be influenced by their own expectations Information
29 🚆 Aesthetic-Usability Effect People perceive designs with great aesthetics as easier to use Information
30 ✈️ Survivorship Bias People neglect things that don't make it past a selection process Information
31 ⛰️ Interference Effect When multiple pieces of information compete, it can hinder memory retention Information
32 💡 Pygmalion Effect Higher expectations lead to improved performance, while lower expectations result in poorer outcomes Information
33 ⬛️ common-fate Users perceive elements that move in the same direction as being related or part of a group Information
34 🔗 Uniform Connectedness Users perceive elements that are visually connected as being more related than those that are not Information
35 🎨 Figure-Ground Users instinctively separate elements into the foreground (figure) and background (ground) Information
36 ➡️ Continuation Users follow lines or patterns naturally, assuming they continue in a consistent direction Information
37 🛤️ Desire Line Users tend to follow the path of least resistance or the route that naturally aligns with their goals Information
38 🔤 Signified The meaning or concept a sign communicates to users Information

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Last updated: 2026-10-20

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