Decision Fatigue
The degradation in quality of decisions after a user has made many choices in sequence.
Plain English
The more decisions a user makes, the worse subsequent decisions become. This is not laziness — it is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. By the end of a long checkout flow, users are more likely to accept defaults, abandon carts, or make poor choices they later regret. The design implication: reduce the total number of decisions, front-load the important ones, provide smart defaults, and save the heaviest decision for when the user's mental energy is highest (the beginning).
Research background
Research by Baumeister et al. and Shai Danziger (2011 judges study) shows that decisions later in a sequence are systematically worse. Applied to UX: multi-step forms where critical decisions come first perform better; smart defaults reduce active choice count; 'save for later' reduces the cost of non-purchase; limiting customisation options reduces the decisions users must make before completing a task.
UI examples
✓ Applying the principle
Checkout that asks for email/password first (easy), then shipping (medium), then payment (complex) — cognitive load builds gradually, not frontloaded.
✗ Violating it
A design tool's welcome screen that forces users to choose template, theme, colour scheme, layout, and font before doing anything — maximum decision fatigue before any value is delivered.
AI Prompt
Paste into Claude, Cursor, Bolt, or v0.
Reduce decision fatigue: front-load easy decisions (email first), provide smart defaults for complex choices, limit customisation to essential options, and use progressive disclosure to hide advanced configuration until it is needed.