Laws / Pointing and time
Parkinson's law
Any task expands to fill the time available for it.
Why it matters
Long forms and open-ended steps invite people to stall, second-guess and abandon. Short, bounded tasks get finished.
Rules to follow
- Ask only for what you need now; collect the rest later.
- Let the browser autofill (autoComplete attributes, correct input types).
- Tell people how long a task takes ("About 1 minute") so they can commit.
- Prefer one-tap choices over free-text fields where the answers are predictable.