domains / families / design / jakobs-law

jakobs-law

separate

Apply Jakob's Law — users expect your product to work like the others they already use. Use when deciding whether to innovate on a familiar pattern. For OS-mandated conventions specifically, use `platform-conventions` (ui-design).

When to use

• deciding whether to innovate on a familiar pattern
• identifying design conventions with strong user expectations
• evaluating the cost of departing from conventions
• making deliberate decisions about following or innovating on patterns
• auditing competitors for interaction handling
• weighting conventions by task frequency
• flagging departures from convention in design reviews

When not to use

• OS-mandated conventions
• platform-specific conventions

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