Jakob's Law everywhere

Jakob's Law states that users expect...

Jakob's Law states that users expect digital products to work like other similar products they've used before.

The Familiarity Principle

Users spend most of their time on other sites. They develop expectations based on these experiences. When they visit your site, they prefer it to operate consistently with their established patterns. This avoids the need for them to learn new interactions.

Origins in the Physical World

Many digital controls have origins in the physical world.

Checkboxes, radio buttons, and toggles mirror their real-life counterparts.

Jakob's Law often prevents major design overhauls in large companies. Established interfaces frequently remain mostly consistent. Craigslist, for example, retains its original design.

Reddit demonstrates this principle. Its appearance in 2005 is very similar to its 2021 version.

Reddit in 2005

Reddit in 2021

Reddit allowed users to preview the new design, provide feedback, and revert to the old version. This approach helped to minimize user frustration.

If every platform adopted unique interaction styles, user confusion would increase. Consistent designs help users navigate various sites without needing to learn each from scratch.

This is exactly why a lot of landing pages follow a similar pattern.

You can try to be smart about it and come around the same conclusion when you realize all you've done is waste your time.

Sully Omar's startup, Ottogrid AI, serves as an example of this point.

They initially used tables and buttons instead of a chat-based user interface (UI).

Now they are going back to a chat-based UI. They lost time and some customers even churned as they couldn't quickly grasp the new interface.

Remember, leading AI startups such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude all use a chat-based UX. They all do it for a reason.

Don't forget Jakob's Law whenever you design a landing page or build a product. This applies to icons too.