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hicks-law-defaults

Use this skill when the question is what to *pre-select* in a list of options — radio groups, dropdowns, configuration UIs, plan pickers, sign-up flows, settings. A strong default is the highest-leverage Hick's Law mitigation: most users accept the default, paying almost no decision cost. Trigger when picking what's selected on first load, when stakeholders argue "shouldn't we let the user choose?", when designing wizards or onboarding, or when a UI has many options but most users want the same one. Sub-aspect of `hicks-law`; read that first if you haven't already.

plugins/HDeibler/universal-design-principles/plugins/cognition-and-learnability-principles/skills/hicks-law-defaults/SKILL.md

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# Hick's Law: defaults as the primary mitigation

Strong defaults are the highest-leverage way to reduce Hick's Law cost. When the system pre-selects the most likely option, the user faces a much smaller decision: "accept the default" or "look at the alternatives." Most users accept; the decision is effectively zero cost. The minority who don't accept now do face the original Hick's Law cost — but only when their preferences differ from the default.

## When to invest in a default

A good default is worth the design effort when:

- **One option is significantly more likely than the others.** If 60–80%+ of users want option X, defaulting to X serves most of them at no cost.
- **The cost of "wrong" is recoverable.** Users can change the default after the fact without losing work.
- **You can predict the right default from context.** User's locale, previous behavior, role, or the immediate task often disclose the right answer.
- **The decision is low-stakes.** Financial commitments, irreversible actions, and privacy-affecting choices should *not* be defaulted; they should be deliberate.

A bad default appears when: