What is Jakob's Law?
Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, formulated the principle around 2000: because people spend far more time on other sites than on yours, their expectations are shaped elsewhere. A design that matches those expectations feels intuitive; one that ignores them feels broken, even if it is clever.
Web conventions visitors expect
| Convention | Where users look for it |
|---|---|
| Logo that links to the home page | Top left of every page |
| Main navigation | Across the top on desktop, behind a menu icon on mobile |
| Search | Top of the page, as a field or magnifier icon |
| Shopping cart / account | Top right corner |
| Contact, legal and policy links | Footer |
| Links | Visually distinct from body text, usually underlined or coloured |
| Primary action | A solid, high-contrast button |
Jakob's Law and redesigns
Users also build habits on your site. A big-bang redesign that moves everything at once breaks those habits and often causes a temporary drop in conversions. Introduce changes gradually, keep familiar paths available for a while, and tell regular users what changed.
When is it OK to break a convention?
Innovation is fine when it removes a real problem and people understand it immediately. Test the new pattern with users and compare key metrics before rolling it out. If visitors need instructions to use it, the convention probably wins.
Lensux checks that your header (or the first part of the page) contains a link back to the home page — through the logo or a clearly marked home link — the single most universal web convention.
Frequently asked questions
Who created Jakob's Law?
Jakob Nielsen, usability researcher and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, around the year 2000.
Does Jakob's Law mean every site should look the same?
No. It's about behaviour and placement, not visual style. You can have a distinctive brand while keeping familiar patterns for navigation, forms and checkout.