089 Hick’s Law
Time to make a decision increases as the number of decision options increases.
Hick’s law, proposed by the psychologist W.E. Hick, states that the time required to make a decision is a function of the number of available options. For example, when a pilot has to press a particular button in response to some event, such as an alarm, Hick’s law predicts that the greater the number of alternative buttons, the longer it will take to make the decision and select the correct one. Hick’s law has implications for the design of any system or process that requires simple decisions to be made based on multiple options; for example, if A happens, press button one; if B happens, press button two.1
All tasks consist of four basic steps:
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