Jakob's Law
Also known as: Jakobs Law, Law of Familiarity
A usability heuristic coined by Jakob Nielsen stating that users spend most of their time on other sites and expect your site to work like the ones they already know. Accessibility implication: novel interaction patterns impose higher cognitive load than familiar ones, so designers serving users with cognitive disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or low digital literacy should reuse established patterns (e.g., cards, buttons, stepper flows) rather than invent new ones.
Category: Design Principles · Usability · Cognitive Accessibility
Related: Cognitive Load · Design Pattern · Usability