Hick-Hyman Law

A principle from experimental psychology stating that the time it takes a person to make a decision increases logarithmically with the number of available choices. In accessibility and interface design, Hick-Hyman Law informs the practice of limiting the number of options presented to users at any given time, which is particularly important for people with cognitive disabilities or motor impairments who may find large option sets overwhelming or physically taxing to navigate. The law is commonly applied when designing menus, word prediction lists, and selection interfaces to balance offering useful choices without imposing excessive decision-making burden.