Jakob's Law
User experience design principle that states that users expect websites or applications to follow the design patterns and conventions that they are already familiar with, to reduce cognitive load and increase usability.
EverydayConcepts.io
Origin
Jakob Nielsen, user experience pioneer and co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group with Donald Norman, articulated the law succinctly: "Users spend most of their time on other sites." Nielsen established the discount usability engineering movement and invented heuristic evaluation. By leveraging existing mental models from familiar interfaces, designers can reduce cognitive load and allow users to focus on tasks rather than learning new patterns.
Updated February 22, 2026