Hick's Law states: "The response time to a choice increases in proportion to the number and complexity of choices."

How does it work. If we apply the law to interface design, then it can be reformulated as follows: the more sections, buttons, fields, cards in the interface, the longer the user will look for the desired option.

How to use in design. Hick's law is often used when designing menus on websites like this: they single out large, main sections of goods or services, and place small, clarifying sections inside them.

In most applications with clothes and shoes, the product card is built in the same way: an image, a product name, a choice of size and color, and add to cart.

The user is used to such a card: if he sees it in a new application, he will be able to freely select the desired product parameters and send it to the cart.

In the graphical interface, everything is more linear, planned than in the voice. If on the site the user acts only within the framework of the steps and response options that the designer has provided, then in the dialogue he is more free: he can formulate requests in his own way or ask additional questions - and all this must be recognized, understood, matched into the right skill.

Artificial dialogue restrictions are also created - in specific skills in ecosystems or utilitarian assistants. Then the user must adjust to the built-in hierarchy of the dialogue - otherwise he will not be able to solve the problem. For example, this includes bank transfers or ordering pizza.

For the design of any interfaces, the general rules of UX design apply, but the pattern of behavior of users of conversational interfaces is only being formed. Several things affect this:

Environment for the interface. Unlike a GUI where there is a sitemap or application architecture that can be drawn in a diagram, there is no hierarchy in a conversation. Precisely because the dialogue with an assistant is very close to a conversation between people, it can also be non-linear - and this is a key difficulty in designing conversational interfaces.