Minimize choices

Remember the last time you went shopping for something as simple as socks? Many stores have big displays with dozens of different socks: single-colored, multicolored, dotted, striped, short socks, crew socks, fuzzy socks, and socks with any print imaginable! How can a person make a quick decision when there are so many options?

The irony of having too many options is that it makes it harder to choose. People mistakenly presume that having many options gives them control. But what actually happens is that our brain feels overwhelmed. In fact, we might abandon the idea of making that choice altogether and leave.

Hick's law states that the bigger the number of options, the longer it takes for users to decide. And the longer the decision time gets, the worse the user experience is.

Instead of throwing a long list of options at users, consider alternatives. For example, you can either reduce the number of items in the list or show only the most relevant or popular options, hiding the others under the See All or Read More buttons.