Parkinson’s Law

1. Tasks will take as much time as you give them.
2. Setting time limits or deadlines can help users complete tasks more efficiently.
3. Simplify tasks by reducing unnecessary steps or actions.
4. Clear expectations for completion time can improve user focus.
5. This law is useful in optimizing onboarding processes or checkout flows.

Parkinson’s Law was coined by British naval historian and author Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a 1955 article published in The Economist. He noted that bureaucratic work tended to expand to fill the time allocated for it. In the context of UX, this principle is applied by minimizing the complexity of processes and setting clear expectations for how long tasks should take to encourage efficiency.

Laws of UX