Tesler’s law for UX design
Here’s a brief overview of one important law of UX
Tesler’s Law, also known as The Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that for any system there is a certain amount of complexity that cannot be reduced.
Summary
Tesler’s Law states that every systems have an inherent amount of complexity that cannot be reduced or hidden. A theory similar to this is called the Waterbed Theory.
Background
While working for Xerox PARC in the mid-1980s, Larry Tesler realized that the way users interact with applications was just as important as the application itself. The book Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer includes an interview with Larry Tesler that describes the law of conservation of complexity. The interview is popular among user experience and interaction designers. Larry Tesler argues that, in most cases, an engineer should spend an extra week reducing the complexity of an application versus making millions of users spend an extra minute using the program because of the extra complexity. However, Bruce Tognazzini proposes that people resist reductions to the amount of complexity in their lives. Thus, when an application is simplified, users begin attempting more complex tasks.
Points to remember
- All processes possess complexity, and this complexity must be accepted by the users or the system.
- Design and develop systems that handle inherent complexity to reduce the burden on your users as much as possible.
- It’s important not to simplify interfaces to the point where they become abstract.
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