Parkinson’s Law

Here’s a quick overview of one important law of UX

Summary

Any task will inflate until all of the available time is spent. In other words, Until all available time is spent, all tasks will expand. It is also known as the law of productivity.

effort vs time graph

Overview

Parkinson’s law, also known as the law of productivity, states that we delay a task that does not have any defined deadlines. Hence, when this rule is applied to user experience design, we see that certain tasks are best accomplished with the ticking clock icon. This is especially true for ‘one-time passwords’ that are shared while net banking or booking airline tickets. The sense of urgency helps in prompting the user to take action. The illusion of the clock running out is actually proved to improve the odds of conversion and speed up the sale in general.

In many instances, when purchasing products on Amazon, there is a discount countdown of 15 minutes. This time triggers drives the user to take the next step, that is, in this case, buy the product, thereby converting his actions into a sale for Amazon.

Real Life example of Amazon using Parkisons Law.

OTP example. design by Ali Ezzati ✪

OTP Timer example

Origins

Articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955 and since republished online, it was reprinted with other essays in the book Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress (London, John Murray, 1958). He derived the dictum from his extensive experience in the British Civil Service.

Points to remember

1. Limit the time it takes to complete a task to what users expect it’ll take.
2. Reducing the actual duration to complete a task from the expected duration will improve the overall user experience.
3. Doing the work little by little will make the user more productive.
4. The users have some temporary rules that, if not taken into account, will cause them frustration, and they will probably leave the process.

Learn more about UX copywriting, Wireframing, Color Theory, Color Terminologies, Typography, UX Research Techniques, Dark Mode UI, Hick’s Law, Fitt’s Law , Type vs font, Teslers law , Usability Principles & Jakob’s Law