When we talk about understanding the "Laws of UX,"
which is a collection of best practices that designers often consider when creating User Interfaces (UI), I don't want to just read through them and forget. Since I am personally passionate about crafts and enjoy the feeling of handling various objects, I had the idea that we should make these theories tangible! I decided to print out all 24 cards of the Laws of UX theory. I believe that cutting each piece of paper and holding those cards in my hands will help me absorb and truly "understand" these psychological theories more deeply than just reading the text on a screen. Gradually digesting the information card by card makes what seems like a difficult academic subject more enjoyable and tangible. After spending the first few days preparing and understanding each card, with the tools and equipment ready, it was time for me to test these theories in the real world, aiming for a global streaming application like Netflix.
✂️ Days 1-2: The Beginning and Preparation Instead of just staring at the screen and typing away, I chose a more fun approach: printing out all 24 Laws of UX cards to cut and assemble into a booklet. I believe that physically cutting the paper and handling the cards myself helps me truly absorb and "understand" these theories, rather than just skimming through them. Digesting the information one card at a time turns what seems like difficult psychological concepts into something enjoyable and tangible.
🔍 Day 3: Hands-on Practice with the Netflix App I chose the Netflix app as a case study. I went through it screen by screen, observing the layout of elements, then compared them with the cards I had cut out to see which design laws Netflix was applying. It felt just like playing a matching game! In the end, I selected 12 cards that I thought "matched" Netflix's design the most.
I analyzed and categorized them into 4 main categories, providing a much clearer picture of the app's thought process.
Group 1: Dealing with Too Many Options (Choice Overload & Hick's Law): When there are too many options, people often spend a long time deciding or are unable to choose. Netflix therefore uses a Top 10 ranking system and recommendations to help reduce the time and burden of decision-making. Chunking: Information is divided into "blocks" through horizontal categorization, such as "Action Movies," "Because You've Watched...", "Trending," to make it easier for the brain to process. Miller's Law: In each row, Netflix displays approximately 4-6 full-size movie covers per scroll. Cognitive Load: Netflix strives to minimize "brain strain," for example, by using a black background to make movie covers stand out and be easy on the eyes.
Group 2: Visual Attraction and Organization (Law of Proximity): Category names are placed near the movie covers within that category to show they belong together, and are clearly spaced apart from other categories below. Law of Similarity: Almost all movie or series covers use horizontal or vertical rectangles of similar size. Law of Common Region: Clicking on a movie cover brings up a pop-up window or expanded information bar. With a clear frame that combines the synopsis and buttons in one area, separated from a blurred or darkened background. Von Restorff Effect: The presence of a large advertising banner at the top of the app.
Group 3: Engaging Users. Zeigarnik Effect: The "Continue Watching" category bar encourages users to finish watching the content. Flow: The 5-second countdown to automatically play "Next Episode" helps users stay focused and enjoy watching the series continuously.
Group 4: Making the use feel familiarity. Jakob's Law: The appearance of the video player (e.g., the central Play/Pause button, the time bar at the bottom, volume or subtitle buttons). Netflix uses a standard design similar to other video apps worldwide, allowing users to use it immediately upon opening the app without needing to learn anything new.
💡 Day 5: Proving the Hypothesis. On the final day, I wanted to make sure that the analysis made sense, so I did some in-depth research and found something amazing: there were articles from the Netflix design team that actually aligned with these UX principles!
